The Dead Forest
by Angelus-alvus
Summary: AU. Medieval story. Ghosts always lived in a place with dead-looking trees. The forest was their home, but what secrects does it keep from their own inhabitants? A young halfa named Danny Plasmius is going to discover them the hard way.
1. Prologue

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

* * *

There was a kingdom named Amikeco Parko[1]. The king was known for being a respectful and generous man for his people. His name was Raymond Irongrip. The population of his kingdom would agree that his name was fit for him.

It was true that he never mistreated his people without a reason. However, he had **little** patience and hated to be defied in any possible way. Everyone always did everything he asked without question afraid of even question the 'why' of his orders.

The oldest was Alicia. She was twenty-one year-old and was married to a prince named William Baxter of the kingdom Malnova Pordo[2]. His father made her marry with him so he could tighten the relationship with the neighbor kingdom.

The youngest of his daughters was Madeline, who was nineteen at that time. She was often called Maddie, for short, by her parents and sister only. No, not just them. There was another person who was allowed to call her like that. It was her…husband.

She had married him five months ago and she did it without her father knowing it. She had to hide this from him because she knew her father would never approve a relationship of a human and a…ghost[3].

His name was Vlad Plasmius. He was also nineteen year-old. He had blue skin, glowing red eyes, long black hair and a white aura around his body. He had married Maddie a couple of months ago.

They had met each other when they were sixteen years old. The couple would never forget how they met…

One day, when Princess Maddie, who was wearing a long elegant blue dress, was going for a stroll with her maids near the horse stables. Two men, in their mid-thirties, one with short blond hair and the other with short black hair who were disguised as servants waited for the perfect opportunity to kidnap her in order to receive a ransom for her.

The princess decided to walk in one of the royal horses to kill some time until the lunch. One of the bandits, who had black hair, heard her and did his best to hide his malicious grin and instead he forced a friendly smile and decided to speak with the princess.

The bandits, after blending into the cast of servants of the castle, discovered that princess Maddie had a habit of riding horses at an almost a daily basis. The reason she liked to ride them so much was because she found it to be quite relaxing.

When he approached her, he bowed respectfully and said while looking down: "Your highness, if you desire, there's a new horse which I think it would please you greatly. It's docile and, in my humble opinion, is worthy of someone of your status."

Maddie couldn't help but to sigh. She didn't like that much being treated like she were superior, however she was aware that it was custom to people talk to her like that, after all, she was a princess. She smiled tenderly at him and replied not aware of this man's malice: "You can raise your head. I appreciate your suggestion. Where is such a magnificent horse."

His partner was watching that scene and quickly went towards their brown horse, which was brought there in the silent of the previous night, and brought it to her. The two bandits looked around and noticed that the guards were quite far and they weren't paying much attention. The two criminals smiled. This kingdom haven't been into a war for two hundred years and the crime rate was low, so that made the guards not do their job with the seriousness it demanded.

The two criminal smiled to see that the princess only protection was just a couple of maids. However, they weren't stupid enough to try drag her to the horse and then flee. They chose to make her mount the horse on her own. Which she did without much trouble.

As soon as she was on the horse, the two criminals quickly mounted the animal, the man with black hair mounted the horse behind Maddie to hold her and the blond one mounted the animal in front of the princess to guide the horse. They had chosen a strong stallion in order to be able to carry the three of them and still be able to run fast. In the process, the princess's golden crown with rubies and emeralds fell on the ground.

The criminals used to horse to flee from there. The maids screamed in shock and all guards were startled by it and picked their weapon and tried to follow them, going to the stable. When they opened the stalls to gain access to the animals only to find all horses' legs chained.

The bandits were laughing at the success of their job as the princess struggled to get rid of the man's tight grip. They were quite lucky to have discovered a hole on the wall that led to outside of Amikeco Parko. So, they didn't need to go through one of the guarded bridges.

Maddie screamed hysterically ordering them to let her go, but the black haired man took from his pocket a long handkerchief and tied over her mouth to muffle her screams. Maddie started to think that was going to be her end. She let her tears to fall from her eyes as she hopped that it would at least be quick. But thing weren't exactly as she thought.

The man with black hair explained to her the reason why she was kidnapped: "We want a ransom for you, dear princess. So if you behave you might see your dear daddy again. So why don't you cooperate, huh?"

She just closed her eyes and flinched as the man tightened his hold on her arms, so she wouldn't try fight back.

However, the kidnappers were foolish enough to try hide into a forbidden area known as The Dead Forest. They thought it was the perfect place to hide themselves, because no one dared to enter that place.

The Dead Forest was the residence of the ghosts. The trees didn't have any leaves and they all seemed like they were dead, yet the trees kept growing every year and their branches were so thick and were spread in a way, almost like a web, that they actually blocked almost all sunlight. It was said that, at night, green orbs with a eerie glow floated within the depths of the forest.

That entire area was strictly forbidden because it was said that its inhabitants, the ghosts, were savage beasts who couldn't stand daylight and they slaughtered anyone who dared to enter their domain.

However the bandits weren't afraid of that. In fact, they were it was just a stupid story to scare little kids. They took Maddie to deep inside of the forest still on the horse. After they dismounted the animal, the princess was dragged by force and was thrown against one tree. She just sobbed as she stared with fear at her assailants.

The man with black hair told to his partner after giving Maddie a good look: "Do you think that if we 'use' her a little bit before giving her back to the king will do any harm to our demands?"

The blond man replied coldly: "As long as you don't do anything visible to her at first sight, You can have fun with her. I'm going to prepare the note for the ransom."

The man with black hair just grinned evilly as he slowly approached her: "Don't worry sweetie. You're going to like it."

However, they weren't alone as they thought they were. Vlad, who was wearing a plain white shirt and brown pants, had heard a commotion and went to investigate. The teenage was invisible as he watched in horror what that filthy man wanted to do with her.

He became visible and told them with spite in his voice: "Don't you have anything better to do other than attack defenseless girls?"

However when the two noticed him, it was too late. Vlad pointed the pal of his right hand to the man with black hair and fired a purple beam against the man, making a pretty bad wound on his belly.

What he had fired was an ecto-blast. It was a power that most of his kind could do with a bit of practice. Vlad's body aura was red because of anger. He was a ghost. A name given by humans because of their abilities.

Vlad hissed at the one with blond hair: "If you value your life, take your pal and leave this place at once, before I make you!"

The blond man quickly picked up his partner and put him over the horse and left fearing for his life. He was trembling in fear after seeing a ghost for the first time in his life.

Vlad saw the teen girl looking at him with as much as fear as those criminals were. She also had never seen a ghost and stories said that he would kill her in a horrible way. She thought she only changed her fate to something even worse.

He slowly approached her, kneeled down in front of her and gently removed the tissue from her mouth turning it intangible and them throwing it on the floor. "There you are. Are you alright?" he asked concerned, but she only looked at him frightened.

Vlad Plasmius sighed. '_I should have expected this…how is she going back home anyway? It's highly unlikely that a human would let me help.'_ he thought shaking his head.

He got up and told her: "You should go home. Your family must be worried." Then he turned and started to walk away. He didn't want her to start screaming at him, but he also didn't want to leave her alone. But how could he help her if she didn't let him!

Maddie looked at him puzzled and scared. Her father always told her that ghosts were merciless being that always killed on the spot, but that ghost clearly wasn't anything like she was taught about.

She gathered all her courage and muttered: "T-thank you…"

Vlad turned quite surprised to see her showing some gratitude. He decided to give another shot and slowly approached her. They both stared at each other for a couple of minutes when the ghost finally asked scratching the back of his head: "Well…do you need any help to go back to your home?"

Plasmius knew that the answer for that was quite obvious, but he had to have her consent to take her back home.

She looked down, still unsure about what to do. She never went so far from the castle before. She didn't have anyone from her kingdom to help her and because she was struggling all her way to the Dead Forest, she didn't pay attention in the path the men took, in another words, she was completely lost.

"Please…help me…" she finally said admitting defeat.

Vlad blinked a few times and smiled at her: "Okay. Where do you live? I could take you near there. I can't exactly be seen by humans or else they might think I'm going to attack them or something."

Maddie nodded understanding. She didn't mind herself having to walk on her own if that meant she could get back home. "I live in the kingdom of Amikeco Parko. Do you know where it is?"

Vlad thought for a bit and he had to admit he didn't know were it was: "I'm really sorry. I don't know where it is. But I think you could recognize it as soon as we spot the place."

Maddie raised an eyebrow and asked: "Do you expect me to walk aimlessly with you until we find my kingdom?" then after a short pause she asked again: "Aren't you going to turn into dust if you go under sunlight?"

Vlad quickly corrected her: "No, no. It's a common mistake you humans do. We don't die if we stay under the sunlight. It doesn't harm us. I've made several travels before to outside of this place. The thing is that we, ghosts, live in this forest, because…" But Vlad couldn't finish his sentence. He didn't know the answer for that. All his life he has been told to never get out of this place, but even in his most rebellious moments he found himself being attracted back to the Dead Forest at the end of each day.

The ghost shook his head from his thoughts and asked, once again, the woman: "Do you want try see if we can find your home? I promise it won't take as long as you're thinking it will. I promise I'll take you home safe and sound."

The princess sighed in defeat, after all, that was her beast choice at the moment: "Very well, let's do it your way…"

The ghost approached her and blushed a little: "Shall we?"

Maddie looked at him quizzically, but before she could react, the boy quickly put her on his arms and became invisible and intangible and flew above the trees. The princess gasped in shock and quickly held against Vlad.

The ghost chuckled seeing her reaction. "It's alright. I'm not going to let you fall." He said as he tightened his grip on her.

However, the teen could only say: "Put me down. PUT ME BACK DOWN!"

Vlad sighed as he tried to calm her down: "Believe me. This is the fastest way. Now, do you remember at least, which direction you came from?"

Maddie took a deep breath. She was now deeply regretting agrreing with such a plan. She tried to focus and looked around from high. She honestly didn't remember exactly which way she came. She could only say: "I'm sorry…I…"

"There's no problem. You know the name of your kingdom, right? Even if we don't know where it is, I know of some human villages nearby. How about if I let you go in one of them to ask for around for some information of the whereabouts of your home. I can't go with you, for obvious reasons, but I'll be waiting for you outside of one of them. Do you agree?" the ghost suggested.

Maddie frowned and couldn't help but to ask: "How am I going to know if you aren't going to abandon me in a far away land?"

Vlad didn't like to hear someone doubting of his good will, but he had to concede that the human teen had never talked or even seen a ghost for a matter of fact, so it was only natural of her being suspicious of him.

"Believe me, my fair lady. I promise I won't abandon you. I promise you'll be back home before the end of this day." He assured her.

"Fine…" Maddie muttered not having much choice at that moment. She had to wonder how much in danger she was right now. She thought that if she angered that ghost too much, he could let her go and she would fall to her death. Not that Vlad would do such a thing, but she didn't know him. Yet.

The ghost started flying north into the direction of a human village. It would take less than an hour to reach that place and with a bit of luck, they would find the information they needed there.

However, that wasn't necessary. While they were flying, while still invisible, The two of them spotted an entire army moving. Maddie recognize the flags, some of them were carrying as the symbol of Amikeco Parko. It was a blue and red flag, divided horizontally with two hands shaking each other in the center of it.

Maddie bit her lower lip before she said to Vlad: "I think it's okay for you to put me back on the ground. They're my father's army. I bet they're looking for me."

Vlad immediately halted. He had noticed the army before, but he didn't suspect that when she had said 'her kingdom', she really meant that the kingdom was really **hers.** He stopped and thought for a while and he immediately retreated to some nearby trees.

The princess jolted with his sudden action and demanded to know: "Why aren't you going to their direction? Are you going to kidnap me as well? You freak!"

Vlad remained quiet as he flew behind a few trees, a bit far from the army, so they wouldn't see the ghost and the princess. Vlad turned visible as soon as he reached the ground.

Maddie quickly got down from his arms. When she stared at him he was really serious, but before she could accuse him more Vlad said: "Tell me one thing, and be honest about it. The reason why you didn't believe me when I said I would help you was because I'm a stranger to you or because I'm a ghost?"

The princess remained quiet taken back by his words, but quickly continued, not letting her speak. "Listen. The world is pretty big and there are things not even you or I can possible understand, however, judge me just because of my species? Are you that low? I don't care if you're a princess or a queen, you're a human being. You aren't superior to any other person, you need to eat, breath and sleep like any human being. You're as mortal as any human as well. Just like I'm just like any other ghost. I might be from another race, but that doesn't give you the right to be suspicious of me because solely because of that! If you wanted to be suspicious because I was a total stranger, I would accept it!"

Maddie was in complete silence. His words hurt like daggers at her. Now she understood why he had to go hiding before letting her go. It would be a huge mess if her father's army found him with her. They would have certainly misunderstood the whole situation.

Before the human girl could apologize, the ghost boy said with an angry expression: "What are you waiting for? Aren't going to meet with them?"

After saying this, he disappeared. The princess sighed. She felt ashamed of herself. She whispered: "I'm sorry…" then she took off her fancy gold-colored shoes and held them with her left hand. After that she went running towards her father's army holding her dress up with her right hand, so she wouldn't trip.

The guards were baffled to see her alone and well! They begged for forgiveness for their lateness and asked her how did she manage to escape from the criminals.

She bit her lower lip. She couldn't tell them she was saved by a ghost. They would never believe that there were kind ghosts or even that the ghosts were actually real, after all, they haven't been seen for centuries.

She lied saying that she had kicked them in their 'precious' areas and used that opportunity to flee from them. Some of the guards laughed amused by the princess' story, because they found quite amusing a royalty, especially a female[3], being so bold and brave in such a situation.

They quickly took her to the castle and when she got there, her family hugged her and covered her with kisses asking constantly if she was okay and if they dared to lay a finger on her.

Maddie didn't like to lie to her family, but she repeated her story to her family. Her sister gave her a thumbs up for her 'feat', but her parents weren't so proud of that. They didn't like to hear that their daughter had acted 'so low', because they found it to be unfitting for a lady of her status, but they had to admit that if it was necessary for her to escape, then they could let the subject go.

Later, that night, Maddie, who was wearing a red silk sleeping dress, was at the balcony of her room staring at the clear sky. She was thinking about everything that happened earlier that day. Her father was furious because the guards 'allowed' her to be kidnapped like that and the only reason he didn't order them to be beheaded, was because begged him not to do such a thing.

She looked at the stars and then closed her eyes to feel the cool night breeze on her face. She felt really sorry for treating that ghost so poorly. "I'm really sorry…" she whispered to the air hoping that the gentle breeze would take her apology to him.

"Apology accepted." Said a familiar voice.

She was startled by it and she instantly recognized the ghost, who turned visible floating outside of the balcony in front of her. She panicked and tried to cover herself with her hands, but then she ran into her room. She felt quite vulnerable to bee seen that way. She felt embarrassed and even a bit angry to be caught in her sleeping cloths. She came back wearing a red mantle over her body trying to feel a bit more secure as she demanded: "What are you doing here?"

Vlad's expression remained serious as he replied: "I just wanted to make sure you would arrive home safely. I…wouldn't forgive myself if something happened at you. Just because you decided to act with prejudice against me, it doesn't mean I should forget my promise that I would take you back home safe and sound…"

"I see…" Maddie said not adding anything else. She felt horrible for treating him like that and she had thought a lot about what he had said to her earlier that day.

For a good time the only sound heard was the wind blowing. Vlad looked around and finally said: "Well, now that you're okay, I'll be going back now. My parents are going to kill me if I get home too late."

Maddie raised an eyebrow, curious at him: "Wait, you have family?"

Plasmius eyebrows creased at her question and he replied: "Of course I have a family. What did you expect? That we are born from dust?"

The princess immediately shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I thought ghosts were just an amount of bad feelings of dead people. That was what I was taught, anyway. But, honestly, I'm doubting of everything I know about your…kind."

Vlad had to admit he liked her sincerity. '_Maybe she can learn something about us. With that, maybe, this whole tension between ghosts and humans might finally end if people start to understand what we really are.'_

Vlad explained: "You see, we, ghosts, aren't an amount of bad feelings. I guess we're known as ghosts because of our 'little tricks'…Anyway, We are living and conscious beings just like humans. We have our powers, but that also doesn't make us superior to your race the same way yours isn't superior to mine. We have hearts just like humans do, though they beat at a **much **slower rate than yours. We also still need to eat, drink and rest like humans and we also have children the same way your kind do."

Maddie listened at his explanation with full attention. She found herself desiring to learn all about him and his kin. She smiled at him, which made the ghost blush a little.

Vlad looked a bit anxious noticing how firmly she was staring at him. But it wasn't in a bad way. The ghost had to admit he liked he had never seen a human willing to learn about ghosts. "I guess…It's time for me to go. Try to be more careful for now on, okay?" Vlad said turning his back at her ready to go flying back to his home.

"Wait! Maddie suddenly said. "You haven't told me your name! And when am I going to be able to see you again?"

Vlad turned again to meet her gaze, loosing himself at her pleading eyes for a few seconds. When he recovered himself from that he said: "My name is Vlad Plasmius." Then after a short pause he asked a bit unsure: "Do you want to see me again?"

Maddie nodded as she replied: "My name is Madeline Irongrip, but you can call me Maddie. And yes. I would love to meet you again. I mean, I'm really curious about you…"

Vlad blinked a few times, before a warm smile appeared on his face. "Well…I guess I could come back here tomorrow night. How about it?"

Maddie smiled gently as she replied: "Tomorrow would be perfect."

Over three years passed by after Maddie and Vlad's first meeting. The ghost started to come to Maddie's castle everyday, at night, after everyone was asleep. Both of them talked and got to know each other.

She even discovered that the ghosts society was very similar to the human's. They had a king, nobles, villages, all of that inside of the Dead Forest. She was quite surprised to hear that Vlad was a count.

The princess lost her fear and asked Vlad to go flying with her every now and then. She started to love the feeling of flying. She thought ghosts were really amazing beings.

They had fallen in love with each other a year after their first meeting. They wanted to wait for the right moment to reveal their relationship to Maddie's family. However, the human princess had met Vlad's family.

Vlad's father was named James Plasmius and his mother was named Christine Plasmius. Both had pale blue skin, red eyes and black hair. However Vlad's father had a short hair while his mother had a long one.

She loved meeting them, but she had to admit that the hour she could talk with them was quite inconvenient for everyone. Ghosts also slept at night, just like humans, but Maddie couldn't leave during daytime without anyone suspecting.

After another year, when both were eighteen, they decided to get married. Maddie whished she could invite her family, but she didn't know how to explain about Vlad. It divided her heart, but she wanted to spend the rest of her life with the ghost who saved her two years ago. She loved him with every piece of her soul, she just hoped her family would be happy for her, when she eventually told them about him.

Fortunately, for them, Vlad's parents knew a ghost priest who was able to realize the ceremony for them. Vlad only called his parents, his best friends, Skulker and his wife, Desiree, Wulf and his brother, Eric. However, Vlad's brother didn't agree with a union of different species and decided to not appear at the wedding. Eric always wore a black armor and worked for the king of all ghosts, Pariah Dark. Vlad's older brother was also known as Fright Knight.

Now, Maddie was pregnant. She had been for seven months. Vlad was really surprised when she told him that she was having their baby.

The princess had to wear very loose dresses and don't let her maids get too close of her anymore. Her family has been quite busy in the last years. Her older sister got married and her father was making some deals with some nobles from other kingdoms.

She didn't have much choice anymore. She had to talk with them as soon as possible about her husband.

One night as she waited for Vlad at her balcony, she heard from behind her: "How is my fair lady and my child doing?" Vlad asked her hugging her and gently caressing her belly.

Maddie was wearing a white long sleeping clothing and wasn't wearing her crown, while vlad was wearing a brown shirt with brown pants.

"We missed you, my dear." She said teasing him, leaning her face back in order to look properly at her beloved one. Vlad carefully leaned her back and gave her a passionate kiss.

"I love you so much…" she said to him after breaking the kiss.

"I also missed you, my love" He said still holding her.

Both were silent enjoyed their moment together. They only whished they didn't have to hide it from Maddie's family.

"It's amazing how you're keeping your pregnancy from everyone else." Vlad said amused still caressing his wife's belly. "Hey I felt a kick! And a strong one, by the way! I bet it's a strong boy."

Maddie chuckled and teased him: "Or a tomboy girl."

Vlad smiled amused at his wife. He didn't care the gender of the kid. He would love him or her regardless of it.

They remained at that position for a while enjoyed each other's affection. The princess finally broke the silence: "I need to talk to my father about you, my love. We can't wait more to tell him. I don't know for how long I'll be able to keep you and our child as a secret."

Vlad knew she was right. He let her go and gently turned her so they could look at each other properly: "You have to promise me you'll only tell your father about us with me nearby. The shock might be too much for him. Besides I want to be at your side when we give him the news about us."

Maddie hugged her husband and dug her head on his chest and said: "I guess you're right…" She didn't want to even imagine what would happen if her family didn't accept her marriage. She could be disowned and have to leave her land. At least, she thought she could live with Vlad in The Dead Forest. She had been so many times there she lost all her fear from that place.

"How about if tell them next week? I think we should start planning what to say to them carefully." Vlad suggested.

"Sounds like a plan." Maddie replied giving her husband a kiss.

After the kiss, Vlad smiled and offered: "How about I give you a foot massage before you go sleep. Carry our child must be wearing you out."

Maddie chuckled before she replied: "Maybe a little, but I know all this effort will be worthy as soon as he or she is born."

"I couldn't agree more with you." Vlad said holding her hand and leading them to her bed.

On the next day, at night, Maddie was about to change her beautiful emerald-colored dress to a more comfortable clothing and wait for her beloved one when she heard someone knocking at the door. After checking herself, she sighed. Each day was harder for her to hide her pregnancy.

Her room was illuminated by the light of a couple of candles. She looked at her shadow silhouette and gently caressed her belly. She was both overjoyed and scared. She couldn't wait to be able to hug her child and give him or her lots of love, but she feared the reaction of her parents.

She opened the door and saw one of her maids. However Maddie hid almost all her body behind the door and only showed her head to the maid.

The maid bowed respectfully and said to her: "You father requires your presence at the throne room."

"Is my mother there with him?" Maddie asked curious.

"No, milady. She's already at her chambers. Looks like your father wants to talk with you alone."

"I see, Thank you." Maddie said wondering what could be so important that couldn't wait for the sunrise. She was also worried about her husband. He should be arriving at any moment.

The maid bowed again and said before leaving: "The pleasure was mine, milady."

Maddie decided to take care of it as soon as possible and walked to the throne room. The halls were lighted by torches and when she got into the room, there was only her father sitting on the majestic gold-made throne wearing a gold and silver-made crown and a couple of guards, who were wearing silver colored armors, holding spears at the entrance of the room.

"I'm here, my father." Maddie said respectfully to her father, as soon as she entered the throne room.

The king looked at his daughter and asked her in a serious tone: "Do you remember Jack Fenton, my dear?"

Maddie raised an eyebrow at the sudden question, but she answered it: "Yes, I do. He's that noble who was at my sister wedding. The one who was building some sort of weapons to fight ghosts, right?"

The king nodded and continued: "Yes, that's him. I just would like to inform you that your wedding with him has been scheduled. It's going to be in three week, on April 28th."

Maddie opened her mouth in shock and quickly said: "Father, You can't make me marry him!"

King Raymond just gave her daughter a bored look and said: "Look, my dear, marriage is a business. Do you think your sister married for love? Actually she got a bit lucky, because she actually started to like him. She said that to me a couple of weeks ago after a visit to us. You'll marry Jack Fenton. We need you to marry him because we have seen that his invention **works** and we need to secure such thing for ourselves, besides, I don't want that your sister's child to be the ruler of both kingdoms It's obvious that the child, especially it it's a boy is going to make user our kingdom becomes nothing but an extension of his father's. I need you to marry a noble, because, that way, your child will be the ruler of Amikeco Parko, instead of your sister's child. I'll not accept such fusion between our kingdoms. You'll marry him and give me a male child to me, so I can have a proper heir. This isn't open for discussion."

However, his daughter wasn't done talking yet: "You can't do this to me. I **can't** marry him, father! Besides ghosts aren't as evil as you claim them to be!" after a short paused she added not really sure if she wanted to know the answer: "A-and how do you know these weapons work?"

This time, the king was starting to loose his patience. He didn't like to be defied. "I already told you that the wedding is already scheduled! Since when do I have to repeat myself to you?" he didn't like to see his daughter defying him one bit. But, remembering her question, he decided to answer it regardless: "The weapons are going to work because Jack Fentom managed to capture a ghost with his new equipment and tested his more 'lethal' ones on it with complete success. I was there when he killed that beast." After another short pause the king continued: "How can you say that? Ghosts are mindless beasts? They can't even think! They're just waiting for the right moment to strike us with their freakish powers! How can you even say those fiends have any sort of good feeling?"

Maddie suddenly snapped at him not being able to hold herself anymore: "Because I married a ghost!"

"WHAT!" her father yelled out loud.

Even the guards were taken aback by both the king and princess' words. The king looked at her daughter astonished. But then he finally understood why his daughter changed the behavior so drastically in the last years and after thinking for a few moments he realized something. His daughter has been 'gaining weight' for the last months. He thought she was just getting fat and he also intended to put her on a strickt diet before the marriage, but after knowing she married a ghost and also seeing how protective she was now towards her womb he finally realized what was going on with his youngest daughter. She was pregnant of a ghost.

"Father, I-" Maddie tried to explain herself better, but she was cut by her father.

"You…DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME FATHER! YOU DARED TO MATE WITH A FIEND AND WILLINGLY, ABOVE ALL?" He gave Maddie no time to answer: "I have no daughter! Guards, kill her!"

Maddie was in utter shock by her father's words. Sure, she expected him to be angry, but to this point? Even the guards were unsure if they should compel to such order.

Noticing that the guards weren't obeying him, he said venomously to them: "What are you waiting for? Do you want to be beheaded? She mated with a **monster** she's no longer human and above all she's carrying a demon's spawn in her womb!"

The guards were now fearing for their own lives and they looked back at the princess who quickly started to run back to her room hoping Vlad had arrived as soon as her father gave the order. The guards quickly followed her.

She managed to arrive in the room and she closed the door and locked it and moved to the balcony and screamed: "VLAD, PLEASE! ARE YOU THERE?" but there was no response.

The guards shortly arrived at the locked door and as soon as they noticed the door was locked, one of the them used the spear to destroy the door handle and now Maddie was defenseless.

"Please, you can't do this! My father is wrong. Ghosts aren't what people think they are!" Maddie begged sobbing as she hugged her belly in a protective way towards her child.

As the guards approached, one of them spoke: "I'm really sorry, princess. But our lives are at stake here as well..."

Maddie tried to give a step back, but she was already at the end of the balcony. She found herself between a certain fall to her death and be killed by these two men.

The guards slowly approached her pointing their spears at her. "VLAD!" she screamed at the top of her lungs hoping he would appear and save her like three years ago.

But it was too late for her as one of the guards pierced her right lung with a spear. She gasped not being able to react at the attack. She looked shocked at the metal stabbing her. The princess feared more for her child who would never see the light of the day in its life.

She cried harder as she felt her life leaving her slowly. However, a sudden a big red blast of energy hit both men sending them flying back into the room. But when they were sent flying the man kept holding the spear and it was forcefully taken out of Maddie.

Vlad had finally arrived and was shocked to say the least. He quickly took his wife in his arms. She was bleeding too much and too fast. He focused and a grey mist enveloped both of them and they reappeared inside of Vlad's house. His parents were at the ghost castle for a ball, because Eric had invited them. He also invited Vlad. After staying there for a couple of hours, the man decided to finally show everyone his wife, after all he couldn't keep her a secret from everyone forever. He wanted to make everyone a surprise to show them his wife. Vlad was wearing an elegant white clothing, proper for such event. But it was now red because of his wife's blood.

"Maddie, please…hang in there…I…" Vlad tried to consulate his wife not really sure how he was going to accomplish such a feat.

She was loosing too much blood too fast. "My father…how could he…I just… why couldn't he be happy for us" she managed to say crying.

Vlad immediately understood what she meant. His fury was boiling, but he was more concerned about his wife.

The princess knew she was near the end of her life. She cried. Not for herself, but for her child and for her husband who was looking desperate trying to figure it out a way to save her.

Maddie's eyes went wide in realization. She had just figured a way to save at least her child. "Vlad…" she said weakly.

"Please, be quiet, my dear. You need to save strength. You're going to be okay…" He tried ssure her, not exactly believing in his own words.

"Please, Vlad…I know I'm going to die…But you can save our child…"

Vlad who was tried to use a ghost power to save his wife, but he wasn't connected with her by blood and she wasn't a ghost. So his attempts were futile. But he turned his look at his wife and was unsure of what she meant by that.

"Dear, you…" Maddie coughed some blood and gathered strength to continue "can save our child by using that intangibility of yours. You must save at least our child…"

The ghost's eyes went wide by such suggestion. "Are you sure of this?" he asked not wanting to dug his hands into his wife. What if he killed his wife? What if he harmed or killed the child in the process? He wanted to find a way to save both of his loved ones.

"Please, Vlad…You must do it, or else we both die. At least save our child!" Maddie begged him using every ounce of her willpower to remain conscious and not give him to the death's embrace before she was sure her baby was alright.

Vlad sighed. He hoped from deep down of his heart that his wife's plan would work. If it did, he would be able to use his healing power on the child, because it shared blood ties with him.

The ghost carefully turned his hands intangible and dug them into his wife's womb and as soon as he felt the child, he gently grabbed it and turned it intangible as well and took it from the womb.

Vlad turned his hands tangible to see his child. It was a baby boy. He had snow white hair and a dim white aura surrounding his small and fragile body.

The ghost held the fragile baby boy in his shaking arms in a cradling position. The boy was crying for leaving the comfort of his mother's womb and the boy was still quite small, which just increased his father's worries. "It's a boy…" he told his beloved wife approaching her so she could see her child.

Maddie raised her hand to touch her precious son. She didn't even minded to see that he was born with his father's heritage so evident. She instantly loved that kid. "Can…I name him?" She said before coughing some blood.

Vlad held his tears seeing the love of his life at the verge of death and told her: "Of course you can, my dear…"

Maddie smiled still caressing her son's crying form who seemed to have calmed down feeling his mother's gentle touch. "How about…Daniel…Daniel Plasmius…"

The man smiled. He truly liked that name. But before he could say how much he liked it, his wife continued still caressing her son: "Vlad, I want you to promise me something…"

He looked at her wondering what she could as him for. He would do it in a heartbeat for her: "What is it, my love?"

"Please…don't tell our son how I died…I don't want to see him growing up with hate against humans, especially against my father. He doesn't have to know any of this. Don't let vengeance to taint his soul."

Vlad instantly frowned. He had every right to spite king Raymond for what he did to his own daughter. But he couldn't deny his wife's last wish: "Very well, my love. For you I shall hide what that monster did to you, but I'll also say your whole side of your family is dead. I think…it's going to be the best for him…"

Maddie smiled weakly as she closed her eyes, finally giving her heavy eyes the rest they begged so much. Her hand fell from her son's face and as if, the boy could understand what had just happened, Daniel started to cry really loud.

The man couldn't help, but to let a couple of tears escape from his eyes. He felt torn. He cursed himself for not arriving earlier at Maddie's home. If he hadn't decide to attend that stupid party, his wife would have been alive and their son wouldn't be in such a danger.

Vlad held the infant firmly, concealing him with his own life energy. Vlad was literally giving the child life support to substitute his mother's womb for the time being. This was something only ghosts of the same family could do to each other in order to save their lives in a extreme case. Ghosts were capable of giving up a few years of their lives in order to heal a family member. Vlad would gladly give up of his entire life for the boy, but, fortunately, all he would loose to help the weak child was just a couple of years, which didn't matter much for him, after all ghosts could live up to five hundred years.

The baby boy was enveloped by a golden light in his father's arms as he stopped crying and seemed to have finally quieted down feeling his father's gentle life energy concealing him and warming him up.

The man didn't know what to do as he gently caressed his son's cheeks. He promised himself he would devote his entire life to raise and protect his child.

End of chapter 1

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update.

More Author Notes:

[1]It means "Amity Park" in Esperanto

[2]It means "Old Gate" in Esperanto

[3]I'll explain what ghosts 'really' are in this story in the later chapters.

[4]Don't get me wrong, this is a medieval fantasy, so I'm trying to be loyal to the time they were.


	2. Burial

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan and writer-from-hell for your reviews. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well.

* * *

Vladmir had just said his final farewell to his beloved wife and remained with his child on his arms as he waited sitting next to his beloved wife. The child was receiving everything it needed to survive from his father's life energy.

The sorrow he was feeling was overwhelming. It even clouded his anger towards King Raymond He had just lost his wife and his child needed special care until it was able to fend for himself.

His glance changed back and forth from his child and wife. It was just yesterday that they were happy and having some fun and now she was dead and there was nothing he could do about it.

What would his family say? How could he live without Maddie? Would he be able to raise that child all by himself? Those were question he repeated over and over again in his mind.

A few hours passed by without him realizing. He felt so numb and he cradled Daniel as if own sanity depended on it. He didn't even notice when the door of the modest house was opened by his father.

James had just arrived from the party in the ghost king's castle along with his wife. He wore a formal white suit very similar to Vlad's, while his mother wore a elegant yellow dress with long sleeves and golden gloves.

They were quite happy. Actually, they had thought that the reason Vlad hadn't come back to the party was because he was having a more private moment with his wife.

The couple never imagined that the first thing they would face as soon as they got into the house was their son with a baby on his arms and Maddie, lying down with her eyes closed. And they all soaked in blood.

"Son…what…" James started not being able to actually finish it.

Christine covered her mouth in horror as she trembled. She was terrified, but then she cling on her husband also not sure of what to say.

Both parents stared at their son, who finally noticed their presence and raised his look from his son to them. It was obvious for the older ghosts that their son had been crying.

James's eyebrows creased in confusion and he questioned firmly this time: "Son, What happened. Who's this child? What happened to her highness?"

"Mother…Father…" Vlad said looking at both of them with great sorrow in his eyes. "I… couldn't protect…That bastard…he…he killed…he…ordered the murder of his own daughter!" Vlad said with his anger returning with the mere thought of that man.

"What?" the older ghosts said in union. Sure, they heard from the princess about the reputation her father, but what kind of parent would condemn their own child to death?

"I should have gone straight to Maddie…I shouldn't have gone to that blasted ball! I could have saved her!" Vlad said clenching his teeth while cursing himself.

His father slowly approached him and leaned down to check on the boy Vlad was holding. He finally noticed what his son was doing to the child. He was giving him some of his life energy. Then he looked back to Maddie and then back to the child and, even though he had a good hunch of what happened he asked anyway: "Son, is that our…grandchild?"

Vlad could nodded. "It was Maddie's idea…I could save our son, because of her…"

It still hurt him knowing that from now on he would never see his beloved smile, laugh, talk and change affection with him. It made him feel numb. He wished he could wake up of that nightmare at any second.

"Oh my poor child…" his mother managed to say putting herself together and approaching her son leaning to see her grandson, doing her best to not stare at the corpse of her daughter-in-law. He was quite a sight. Instantly her maternal instincts made her offer to her son, noticing how he was keeping the infant alive with his life energy. "Please, son. Let me do this for you."

He knew what she meant, but he shook his head and told her. "Thank you, my mother. But this is something I must do alone." He said not taking his look from his child.

Vlad's father sighed. He liked Maddie and she was already part of their family. He had accepted his son's decision to marry that human. Few were able to marry motivated by love at that time. Even ghosts held arranged marriages in their high society. His son had told him and his wife about Maddie's pregnancy. He had to admit he was really shocked to see his grandson on Vlad's arms. He couldn't even start to understand how much in pain his son was at that moment. At least he was glad that his grandson was alive and being taken care of.

James went to the door of his house, then turned to his son and said: "I'm going to see if priest Isaac is awake. We need to provide her a proper burial. She can be buried at our family side of the graveyard." He turned his wife and told her to stay there with their son and grandson, then he left the house

Vlad knew his father was doing a good thing for him allowing Maddie to be buried with their ancestors and considering her a member of their family, even though she was human. But his words about her funeral sounded so alien to him. It was like he had awaken from a bad dream to actually live his worst nightmare.

Christine was still in front of her son, on her knees when finally looked at Maddie and felt really sorry for her. She knew that being royalty had its downsides, but death just because she married someone she loved? Then she looked at her grandchild and wanted to rock the baby on her arms, but she knew he had to stay with Vlad 24/7 until he was strong enough to eat on his own. She decided to try make her son focus on something else to take his thoughts from his loved wife: "What's his name? Have you decided yet?"

Vlad looked at her and replied: "His name is Daniel. Maddie chose it before she…" he couldn't bring himself to even mention what happened to her anymore. No matter how much he tried to deny it, the reality always appeared to bite him where it hurt the most.

His mother cringed knowing that her plan wasn't working as she intended, but she continued to chat with her son, now just wanting to him to remain with his sanity: "That's a very good name…He is very peaceful. I've seen kids having a premature birth before and don't worry about it, he's going to be fine. You're doing a terrific job. You're a natural good father."

In any other time, Vlad would have blushed at that comment, but he simply made a 'humm' sound. He was question his own parenting skills. He knew he could count with his parents, but he was Daniel's father. He questioned himself if he could be a good father and be able to protect his son from the same fate that had fallen over his wife.

Vlad then told her what Maddie made him promise before she died. About not telling Daniel the truth about her death and her horrid father. He also added: "But I won't hide from him that his mother was human. He has no need to feel ashamed from it."

Christine nodded and said: "I agree with both of you. I also don't want to see my grandson misunderstand the situation. I've heard from my father, that many ghosts hated humans as general just because of the actions of few of them. I want Danny to be a good and strong boy in the future."

Vlad couldn't help but to smile a little bit at the nickname his mother gave to his child. He remained rocking his child fully knowing that tomorrow would be a another very sad day for him and his family.

* * *

On the next day, still early in the morning, Vlad was heading towards the cemetery still holding his son and giving him his life energy. James had waken up the priest that had celebrated his son's wedding, knowing that he had nothing against humans. The old, bald, green skinned ghost agreed to give Maddie a proper burial at the Plasmius' family plot.

He hadn't called any of his friends. The thought didn't actually crossed his mind at that time, besides he couldn't go too far with the newborn child and the only reason why he took him there was because he had to stay with Danny all the time and he didn't want to miss his wife's burial.

He had cleaned Danny up on that previous night with his mother and now Danny was wrapped on a baby blue blanket still sleeping profoundly feeling the warmth of his father's energy.

The only ones there were James, Christine, Vlad, these three wearing black clothes, Danny, the priest and, surprisingly, Eric as well. James had gone also to his oldest son abode and told him what happened. Fright Knight was wearing his usual black armor, but he was holding his helmet with his right hand. He looked a lot like his younger brother, but he had short black hair, like his father, he had green eyes and had no goatee.

They had provided Maddie a wood-made coffin for her. It may not be fit for someone of her status, but it served well for its purpose. The priest started his preach about her: "Madeline Irongrip, wife of Vladmir Plasmius, was a kind woman. She was a loved woman. She was different from most of the humans and didn't hate ghosts…"

He continued with his speech as the others listened with attention at the priest gave to Madeline. Christine cried a little bit during the burial, while Vlad and James had a very sad expression on their faces. Fright Knight had a blank expression, it was like he was there as if it was a mere formality for him.

But Danny was whining and it was at the verge of tears. It was like the small baby could understand what was going on around him. Vlad felt heartbroken as this thought crossed his mind. '_He's just a baby…he can't possibly understand any of this…'_

After Maddie was buried, Vlad gave a good look at the gravestone.

_Madeline Irongrip Plasmius_

_ 1483-1502_

_ Princess of Amikeco Parko _

_ Beloved wife and mother_

When the ceremony ended, Fright Knight called his brother for a more private conversation. Vlad could only wonder what his brother had to say, but he quickly told him. "Please make it fast. Daniel can't be outside for too long. It might not be too healthy for him."

He had said that because he was aware that he and his older brother weren't exactly on good terms and he honestly didn't have patience to hear another speech of his about how he tainted ghosts' honor by marring a human female.

After a quite awkward silence, Eric spoke: "So…did you finally realize a human wife wouldn't be fit for you?" Fright knight said having to admit he was quite shocked to see the scene.

Vlad was furious by such comment. But he had to hold himself: "If I wasn't taking care of Daniel right now, I would make you pay for insinuating such a thing! I love her. I would never raise my finger to harm my own wife! It was her father who did such a thing."

After a few moments, Eric's eyes went wide as he realized what he had just implied. "I didn't mean like **that. **What I meant was, are you going to stop chasing human females and start to get a real wife for you?" he said in his defense.

Vlad clenched his teeth and he snarled at him: "I do not need another wife! I'll raise my son alone and nothing you say will change what I feel! I'm sick of you trying to control my life and say what I can and what I can't do!"

Eric shook his head and told his brother: "Do it your way then. Maybe it was better that she died. Our father told me why she was killed. It only happened to her because you married her in first place! If you truly loved her you would have kept a safe distance from her! And do you think **all** ghosts would have accepted such union? Even our king doesn't like humans too much. Your child could be considered an abomination. But hey, as you said, it's your choice." Then he left heading towards his horse placing his helmet back on.

Vlad hated himself for this, but he had to admit his brother's words had some truth in it. He had told everyone he knew about Maddie and he also almost made his marriage something notorious for everyone in the ghost kingdom. He started to doubt his choices, but he shook his head. It was no good to dwell in the past like that. He had a son who needed all his attention. Then he returned to his friends and family.

After Fright Knight mounted his winged horse and took off to his own home. "At least my nephew looks normal." He mumbled to himself.

* * *

Far away from there, at night, a silver ghost werewolf was walking into the depths of the Dead Forest. He wore a brown vest and black pants. He growled in frustration. He had been walking through hours trying to find his goal. He had accidentally found a book in his father's library. The book was about the many myths about the origin of ghosts.

Any other person would have thought it was just stories for kids, after all nobody really knew about their very own origin and few gave much thought into it. The werewolf always heard from his father that any story had a bit of truth inside of them. The book was fairly old and even his father didn't know about it. He only told his son that it should be some book left there before he was the librarian. This only rose his natural curiosity and he decided to read it and try discover if anything that was written there was truth. That's why he started to investigate everything written there.

The scarce sunlight was now completely gone and the moonlight wasn't nearly as strong to illuminate that place. He had a very good night vision, but it still troubled him a bit and he would eventually trip on a stone or two and his night vision was monochromatic.

"Argh! This is stupid. How am I supposed to find that wretched place with such darkness!" He said out loud after tripping once again.

He got up and was ready to go back home when he saw a glowing green orb floating next to him. He looked at it puzzled and the orb started to float deeper into the forest.

Those orbs were made of raw ghost energy, ectoplasm to be more accurate. But They were usually caught and placed in glass to work as a lamp to illuminate the path inside of the Dead Forest.

The reason why the werewolf didn't bring one, was because he didn't want to draw the attention of his kin. The ghost werewolves lived under the reign of Pariah Dark in a village not so far from the castle. An average adult werewolf could reach the limits of the castle in less than thirty minutes, if they ran as fast as they could.

The green orbs were also known as 'fireflies'. Nobody knew where those things came from or why did they only appeared at night. Even those captured fireflies, during daylight, became invisible and only reappeared during night. Even if they were placed in a complete dark place, as long as the sun was high in sky, they fireflies wouldn't shine.

Touching them was like a rather unique feeling for the ghosts. Their hands felt numb and after they released it, they felt their hands quite warm, in a pleasant way, actually. Nobody knew why and few cared to know. That werewolf was one of the people who cared.

He was a bit curious by it. The 'fireflies' always were found in large groups and yet that one was floating all alone. '_Maybe we caught too many of them…'_ he couldn't help but to think.

He gave a step into the direction the orb went and shook his head. '_What am I doing? This is stupid. I'm not going to chase a 'firefly'!' _He stood there for a few seconds, then groaned before giving in into his curiosity. The silver werewolf started walking faster towards the direction it went. '_I'm going to hate myself later for wasting my time like this…'_

The lycanthrope followed it into an area he had never been before. He felt like if didn't pay enough attention he could get lost for good. After an hour chasing the orb he spotted more and more glowing green orbs.

He had followed them for a while, but then he realized something was off. He started to recognize few places, but not because he was in a familiar area. It was because he started to walk in circles.

'_What an interesting behavior. Why do these things move like this?' _He mused as he looked as more and more 'fireflies' arrived.

There were so many now that it formed almost a ring, which covered a part of the forest. The werewolf was located just outside it. H took a deep breath and moved past the ring into the area it was surrounding.

He experienced a much more intensified numbness in his entire body, even tough just his chest was the part of his body that touched the massive amount of fireflies.

The werewolf almost lost his balance as he tried to recover his senses cursing himself for having the brilliant idea of following that green orb in first place. But when he was about to leave he felt great. It wasn't just a pleasant warm feeling. He felt like he had energy to run for countless miles.

It was then that he remembered what he read in his book. 'The great ring of eternal vigor reaches its peak at the midnight of everyday. In the very center of it lies the ultimate key.'

The he started looking everywhere around in the area inside of the ring. At every minute the entire area glowed green more and more. The orbs started to slowly mold into a solid green ring. The lycanthrope notice that. _'Maybe the key will reveal itself when that thing becomes a ring.'_

So he waited. It took some time until midnight, but he was so anxious he didn't feel sleepy at all. When the midnight came, the orbs became a solid green ring of energy and it spun at a high speed.

The werewolf was fascinated by it and he wanted to touch it to try out how it felt, but something else called his attention. Right in the very center of the ring a purple light came from the ground.

The lycanthrope approached and sat on the ground near the glowing place. It wasn't wide, but it sure stand out in that place. He warily touched it and feeling nothing harmful against him he decided to dig using his powerful claws.

It didn't take him long until he reached a weird purple box. He wiped all dirty on it and held the strange object high to let the green light show him its details better. It was plain and had no lock and no gap he could use to open it.

He examined it more carefully and noticed eight circles on one 'face' of the box displayed in a way that four were horizontally lined up on one side and, on the same 'face', other four circles also lined up with their partners of it and he also noticed two more circles on the opposite 'face'.

The lycanthrope pondered about it for a while. After a few minutes he decided to try something out. He placed his thumbs on the side that were just two circles and his remaining finger on the side with eight circles and each finger was over each circle.

He pressed all his fingers at the same time and it surprisingly worked. When he pressed the buttons he heard a 'click' sound and he also heard something dropping on the ground.

The werewolf checked the side where he pressed with his thumbs and realized that a small door had opened. Then he looked to the ground and saw a medallion. It had the shape of a gear and it was gold and black and in the center of it had two letters written in blue. The letters were CW.

He picked it up and his grin was wide in satisfaction. His body trembled in excitement. _'I knew it. __**I knew it!**__ The key does exist! It'll be only a matter of time until I uncover all mysteries about this place! All I have to do now is find the entrance to the truth!' _He thought.

The ghost got up and traced his steps back to his home, hiding the medallion on his pocket. As soon as he did that the ring faded. It took him by surprise. He wondered what it could mean. But he shrugged and told himself it could be just a side effect, after all the ring was supposed to be the signal for the medallion, without the medallion, the ring would lose its purpose.

He did his best and managed to find his way back to the werewolf village. Something that he didn't notice was that there was no other 'firefly' as he ran back to his home.

End of chapter 2

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. Please review because they make me very happy.

More Author Notes:

[1]I'm re-using an old OC of mine.


	3. Healing Wounds

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)thanks Truephan, writer-from-hell, Cristopher Scott and ayaneragon4ever for your reviews. They made me really happy. I hope you'll enjoy this as well.

* * *

A few months passed by after Maddie's burial. Daniel had grown stronger during the months, so he didn't need to 'feed' from his father's life energy. Vlad only lost a couple of years in the process. Not that he would miss them, because seeing his son healthy was already worthy of it.

Both Skulker and Wulf got worried not seeing their friend for a long time and they went to the Plasmius' abode to check on him. It was a shock for them to hear everything that happened to Maddie and how Vlad had to stay with his son all the time because of his premature birth.

The Plasmius family was part of a minor noble family. It had its advantages. They were invited for some of the parties in king Pariah's castle and they weren't as obsessed with status as most of humans were.

Eric's fighting skills even granted him to be nominated Pariah Dark's general. The older of the Plasmius brothers surpassed his younger brother in terms of strength and sword skill, but Vlad specialized more in his ecto-energy, so he could teleport and fire more powerful ecto-blasts among other things.

Skulker's family, the Huntstorm, was also like Vlad's, however he himself never enjoyed going to those parties, but he was usually dragged by his wife, Desiree, who he married some years ago. He loved her and that's the only reason why he tolerated going to the kings' castle for those 'pointless' balls. Skulker was five years older than Vlad and he considered Skulker more of an older brother to him than Eric.

Wulf lived in the werewolves' village. He didn't have any noble status technically and wasn't a ranked soldier either, however his race was considered important and received privileges form the king due the vast amount of knowledge they held. Only they knew the secret languages contained in the books of the ancient library also located in the werewolves territory. Vlad had met him in his childhood because he was sent to study there like many other ghost kids of his age. The best teachers were considered the werewolves and the lycanthrope only allowed the best student to receive their teachings.

In fact, two generations ago there was almost a war between the werewolves and the ghost king of that time because the ghost king's son failed the admission entrance exam and the lycanthropes refused to teach him just because of his rank. Fortunately, they allowed the king's son to retake the admission exam and the king made him son, who was Pariah's father, study his eyes out to not fail again and he passed with the minimum grade.

But in the end, it didn't matter what had happened between the families of Vlad, Skulker and Wulf, or the kingdoms and the werewolves. Vlad and Eric were still brothers and Vlad was still friends of Skulker and Wulf through it all.

So, naturally, at first, Skulker and Wulf were mad at Vlad for not calling them. They would have lent a friendly shoulder to him and they would have gone to Maddie's funeral as well. But they could understand that if they were him, they wouldn't have thought about calling them.

They were also surprised when they heard how exactly Danny was born. They felt really sorry for the kid not being able to know his mother.

They also were very angry towards king Raymond. They even talked with Vlad about a retaliation. They couldn't believe their ears when Vlad told them to drop the subject and never mention to Daniel how his mother died. But seeing how confused they were, Vlad explained about Maddie's last wish. They frowned at hearing that, but they decided to respect the boy's mother final wish.

Skulker had also offered himself to teach the boy how to hunt and also take him along with his own son, Johnny. While Wulf also offered himself to give the boy some private lessons to help him out to pass in the werewolves' school admission exam so he could get the best education as possible.

Vlad couldn't help but to smile warmly at his friends' support. He felt like he was going to need it.

One month later, Skulker was at the door of the Plasmius abode to pay his friend another visit. One of the maids of the house guided the ghost hunter to Daniel's room. Vlad was watching his son while he slept. Skulker could imagine why he was doing that even after Daniel not needing his life energy anymore. Vlad grew too attached to the boy spending months with direct contact with him.

The older Plasmius couple had prepared a room for the incoming baby as soon as they heard Maddie was pregnant. It had blue wall and a crib near the opposing wall of the door.

Vlad was staring at his child sleeping peacefully in the crib. He truly loved that child and he would do anything for him, he just wished his wife was there to share that moment with him.

Vlad heard someone knocking on the door and he turned to see who it was. He smiled when he saw Skulker who entered the room and went to the side of his friend. "Is the whelp doing okay, Vlad?"

The younger of the Plasmius siblings nodded and said: "Yes, he is. I know he doesn't need my life energy anymore, but I can't just leave him to the care of maids or nannies…I'm capable enough of raising him myself. I think Maddie would like it to be this way too."

Skulker rubbed his goatee and had to agree with his friend: "I know what you mean. Well, you know I have a four-year old rowdy-boy. Johnny is quite active and I'm very proud of him. And now my wife is feeding our newborn daughter, Ember. She's very beautiful and I think she inherited that from her mother. We both decided to raise our kids ourselves, it gives more trouble, but every second I spend with them is worth of it." Skulker said with a grin.

Vlad only smiled weakly at his friend. He knew Skulker was trying to chat with him so he would stop moping about the death of his wife, which he did quite often, actually. Vlad got himself into a dilemma. He wanted to move on, but he didn't want, or better saying, he feared to forget about his beloved if he tried to move on and try be happy like before of that incident.

Both men where watching Daniel sleep when suddenly the boy started to whine. Vlad quickly picked him up and rocked him on his arms trying to calm him down. But his whine suddenly turned into a loud cry.

"Maybe he's hungry or need to change…" Skulker said using for base his own experience with kids.

"Maybe…" Vlad said unsure.

However, before any of them could react, two blue rings appeared on the baby's waist and moved in opposite directions. His white aura disappeared and his hair changed to the black color.

Both adults were taken back by it. "What the…" Skulker said with wide eyes.

Vlad warily examined the baby to check for his vital signs. He was really worried because Danny haven't done anything like that before. Besides, the boy was whining as if he was feeling somewhat uncomfortable with something.

After checking his heart and pulse, Vlad's eyes went wide after he realized what happened to Daniel. He would have slapped himself on the forehead if he wasn't holding the boy.

He looked to Skulker and explained to him: "Skulker, you remember that Maddie was human, right? So Danny is half human, half ghost, in another words, a hybrid. I guess he was using his 'ghost form' so far because he had direct contact with me and my energy for a long time, so I think that's the reason he never showed any signs of being half human before. But it looks like he's finally showing off his human form. Maybe he needs to transform back to his human mode once in a while…"

The ghost hunter crossed his arms and looked pensively the boy. "I think the best question here is why does he even need to do that?"

"Who knows…only the time will tell. As long as it doesn't harm his health, I'm fine with it. He looks as handsome as human or as ghost in my opinion."

But Skulker didn't share his friend's enthusiasm. So he decided to remind his friend a certain detail he seemed to be forgetting: "I think he should transform back to his ghost self for now. The sooner he learns how to control it, the better it'll be. You know that there are ghosts around here who doesn't like humans."

Vlad sighed not being able to deny that his friend was right about it. He looked back to his son who had opened his eyes, revealing a pair of baby blue eyes. Plasmius smiled softly and told his son hoping he could understand while he gently tickled him under his chin: "Danny, could you transform back? Can you do it for daddy?"

Danny laughed softly at his father's touch and surprisingly he changed back to his ghost form. Vlad gave him an amused smiled and said to his friend proudly: "Looks like he's just as smart as he dad!"

Skulker chuckled and teased him: "Let's just hope he won't take his physical strength from your side!"

Vlad rolled his eyes, but then he smiled when he saw his son yawn and go back to the dreamland.

* * *

King Raymond couldn't rest for one single minute after hearing the news about his youngest daughter marrying a ghost. He considered it an act of betrayal never seen before in Amikeco Parko.

He heard from the guards what had happened to his daughter. He found no comfort in their words because he didn't know if they had managed to kill her or not. He didn't know what ghosts were truly capable of doing. '_Maybe that thing healed her. My father once told me, you can't consider someone to be dead unless you see the corpse by yourself!'_ he thought angrily.

Alicia and Teresa cried after knowing what happened. Both of Irongrip females didn't know what went through Madeline's head to involve herself with a ghost, but they still loved her. However, none of them dared to voice it to Raymond.

Alicia was pregnant and could give birth at any moment by now to the increase of king Raymond's worries. William, Alicia's husband, also agreed with his father-in-law about how Maddie disgraced his family. He had to agree with him because the last thing he desired was to end up having a war against him. Amikeco Parko raised their military forces exponentially after Maddie had disappeared with Vlad. Besides if he played nice enough, his child would end up being the ruler of both kingdoms.

The only thing that gave King Raymond some peace of mind was that he was arming his military forces with anti-ghosts weapons developed by Jack Fenton. That big man was sad after knowing that he wouldn't be able to marry Madeline anymore. He honestly believe that she was under the control of that 'vile creature'.

King Raymond knew that Jack's weapons worked because he saw when Jack experimented on three ghost vultures that had attacked the Fentons some time ago.

* * *

_One day, Jack, who had a bit long hair[1] and his parents went for a horse ride on the outskirts of Battleport, which was a kingdom a bit far from Amikeco Parko. They were accompanied with a few dozens of guards to protect them from thieves and such._

_During the stroll, __Jack spotted a weird glowing green stone. He dismounted the horse and went to check it when suddenly three green vultures appeared out of nowhere and started to attack him and his family._

_ The guards that were accompanying the Fenton family drew their weapons and tried to attack the birds, but it was pointless. Everytime one of the vultures approached enough to reach the range of the swords, they turned intangible and they seemed to be snickering._

_ The three birds grabbed the soldier and lifted them high in the air and after aiming they released them on the other soldiers, who had also dismounted their horses, knocking them out._

_ The guards were starting to panic when Jack, furious at those weird birds, picked one of the green stones and threw it with all his strength at one of them. The rock hit the vulture knocking him out cold._

_ "Hey! Vat the…" questioned one of them confused. _

_ The large man didn't know why the stone hit the one bird, but he used that opportunity to pick up two more of them and they hit their heads also knocking them down._

_ Jack was fascinated how those stones were able to hurt those birds more than swords! Jack told the guards to carry as much of this material to his workshop. Jack's parents always told him that a noble shouldn't be doing this kind of manual labor, but the big man liked to experiment and create new gadgets, chemicals and such. He even came up with a food he liked to call fudge[2], which he loved. _

_ Jack kept those unconscious vultures in a cage hoping that it would at least hold them back a little. Jack had read about glowing beings with bizarre powers known as ghosts. He was quite fascinated by them and always wanted to study one and there he was! _

_He put on some protection gloves usually wore by blacksmiths and wasted no time. He turned some of that green stone into powder, mixed with water and submerged three coiled ropes inside of the recipient with the now green water._

_ He waited for a while and he removed the ropes carefully with big pincers, being extra careful to not touch the water with his bare hands. He didn't know of any side effect yet. _

_He was quite surprised when he saw that the ropes were now green with the same white aura that the vultures had. Still wearing the gloves, the man hold them carefully and for his relief it didn't do anything bad to him._

_Jack quickly opened the cage and used each rope to completely tie the vultures. Then, the big man, after many tests, discovered many interesting things about that stone. He discovered that it doesn't melt inside of a hot oven, also similar to the ones used by blacksmiths. Another thing he discovered was that, once the powder was mixed with water, it easily attached to __**anything**__. He discovered it when he accidentally let the pincers fall into the green solution. By reflex he quickly put his gloved right hand into it and picked the object up. Both the pincers and his glove were green with the same white aura. He panicked and quickly removed his glove to see if there was any side effect on his hand. For his relief there was no side effect on his hand. _

_The man continued with his experiments on the stones until the vultures woke up. They struggled against the ropes and they discovered they couldn't phase through it._

"_Vat gives? I can't go intangible!" exclaimed one of the vultures._

"_Amazing! You know how to talk!" said Jack amused._

_Jack then named that strange metal as 'Ectorranium'.__ Because it was capable of blocking the so called 'ectoplasmatic powers', which the man read about in his old books about ghosts._

_According to those books the ghosts' blood is green and is called ectoplasm and the book also said that it might be the source of their powers, but there was no conclusive study about it._

_Jack shrugged as he snapped out of his thoughts and took a better look at the vultures. "Release us now, or you'll face the king's wrath!" yelled one of the vultures who seemed to be the oldest of the bunch._

"_Ghost king…" Jack repeated and adding in his mind 'They must have a hierarchy like we do'._

"_Yes! If you don't release us, it'll mean war!" shouted another vulture._

_The human frowned. "You attacked us first! What you did could be already a proclamation of war!" _

_ One of the vultures defended himself: "Hey! We are royal scouts! We were just having some fun with you and besides we have diplomatic immunity!"_

_ "Fun? You call harm innocents something funny?" Jack asked outraged._

_ The oldest vulture scoffed: "Don't blame us if your kin is so fragile."_

_ "You'll see how 'fragile' we really are!" Said Jack before leaving the room. _

"_Hey! Release us!" yelled the birds struggling to get rid of the ropes without success._

_The big man ignored them. He was furious at those birds, but he couldn't help but to wonder. If what those birds were saying the truth, it means that the Ghost King must by watching the humans. He couldn't help but to wonder why would he do such a thing. To ensure humans wouldn't try attack them? No, if it were the case, the vultures' answers would be completely different. Those birds acted like they were carefree, in another words, they felt confident they could take on any human any day!_

_ "An invasion…" he muttered to himself. For him, that was the only logical answer. The Ghost King might be watching them to strike the humankind when they were more vulnerable._

_ Jack then contacted all nearby kings and also many important nobles to witness his anti-ghost gadgets in action and also to discuss the possibility of a ghost invasion. He explained how the vultures acted without any mercy to the lives of humans and how they felt no regret about it._

_Those news made all kings become worried by the possibility of a ghost invasion. That was the reason why king Raymond wanted to marry Maddie with Jack. So he could have full access to all anti-ghost weapons the man created and also to assure to have a proper heir to ensure the independence and safety of his kingdom.

* * *

_

King Raymond was a man that didn't like to be pitied, yet he accepted Jack's offer to add Ectorranium to Amikeco Parko's army's weapons. The big man did it because he felt really sorry for what happened to Maddie and wanted to ensure that the same tragedy wouldn't fall twice upon that kingdom.

However, the Ectorranium technically belonged to the kingdom of Battleport, which was ruled by the Manson family. So king Raymond Irongrip still had to buy the stones, but the service of turning them into anti-ghosts weapons was done for free.

King Raymond seriously considered trying to have another child with his wife and he thought that if he still had some luck it would be a boy he always desired. But neither he or his wife were getting any younger and he feared that his wife's womb wouldn't be able to produce any child at all. But he still had to try. He refused to deliver his kingdom in a silver plate to William's heir.

* * *

In the meantime, the mysterious silver lycanthrope spent the last months trying to figure it out 'the ultimate key'. He read all books his father's library. The only clue he had found was about something called the 'Cave of Beginning'. He had traveled through many different areas and he got into all caves he had found, but there was no trace of them having anything related with the gear-like medallion he had found.

He got really frustrated, but he didn't give up. He kept searching day after day, but he had to wonder about something that was disturbing not only him, but the entire ghost race: What had happened to the 'fireflies'?

There was none in the forest and even those which were captured and kept in glass recipients had completely vanished. They didn't shine anymore even at night. Deep down, the silver werewolf knew it was related with the fact he had taken the key from its place, but he was no fool. He kept it all to himself. He often went to the same place where he discovered the key to check if someone had disturbed that place.

He decided to leave the box buried in its original grounds. He couldn't risk taking it home. Because, he had made another experiment of his. One day, near midnight, he had picked the box and placed the medallion back inside of it. For his surprise, as soon as he placed the gear-like medallion inside of it, the green ring made of fireflies returned. And when he took the medallion from the purple container, the ring disappeared once again.

The lycanthrope thought that the fireflies main objective was to signalize where the 'key' was being kept. But if that was the case, why wouldn't the fireflies still appear around him? After experimenting some more, he discovered that the fireflies only became the ring of eternal vigor in that place where he originally found the box. It only rose his curiosity even more.

He then tried another thing. At that same place, at the same hour. He placed the medallion back inside of the box, making the ring appear again. But this time, he tried to leave the place with the box.

As soon as he crossed the ring, he didn't feel neither the numbness nor the feeling of invincibility. He found it quite weird, but it soon disappeared as he felt the earth rumbling.

The earth, in the small clearing, where the box was being kept, started to shake harder when a metallic structure raised from the ground. It was a fairly big metallic building. It had a gate in front of it and nearby a hole with the shape of the medallion. Also it had attached to it two fireflies, one above and the other bellow the hole.

The lycanthrope stood there still a bit surprised, but when he recovered himself, he figured it out that the medallion was indeed a 'key'. It had to be inside of the locker in order to reveal that place. The werewolf was glad he was alone and due the time and the lack of light, no ghost would be able to spot it.

He raised an eyebrow as he noticed something even more weird. There was no fallen tree on the sides of the strange building. The werewolf was certain that there were trees there before…

He quickly shook his head and tried to focus on more important matters for him. He, who was still holding the purple box, opened it and picked up the medallion. Then, he placed it in the hole, but nothing happened. He crossed his arms while he thought for a while. Then he tried to turn the medallion, after all, it was called a 'key', wasn't it. He turned it clockwise and it worked for his excitement.

The big metallic gate started to lift revealing a path. Alphonse looked inside of the new path and saw that it was also lighted by fireflies. He couldn't help but to grin widely, showing all his teeth.  
He tried to walk into the path, but his body collided with an invisible wall. "What the…" he said rubbing his muzzle.

Then he placed his right hand on it and there was a strange feeling for him. It was like there was a wall, because he couldn't push it inside of that place, however he couldn't tell if it were hot or cold. It was like the air itself had solidified.

He picked up a small stone and threw with his full strength inside of the place and for his surprise the stone went through it. He quickly pressed both of his hands on the place where the stone passed through to see if he had accidentally hit a hole or something, but there wasn't such a thing in that entire entrance.

He groaned being so close, but yet so far to enter that place, he assumed that was the Cave of Beginning. But then he yawned. He decided to leave this to another day. He needed to rest and think carefully how he could proceed to enter that place.

He had to admit he was worried how he could hide that place. He just hoped no one would try venture within the depths of the Dead Forest and the best he could do was lock the place again so no one would 'dare' try to discover its secrets before him.

He turned the medallion to the other side and the gate closed up again. When he removed the medallion the earth started to rumble again and the building started to sink into the ground and this time he noticed something even more bizarre. The landscape changed. The trees were moving on the ground back to their places before the building had risen.

The lycanthrope looked at it in awe. He had focused so much on the building rising he didn't notice that the trees could freaking move without getting out of the ground! He decided that, even though it was too risky to leave both medallion and the box there, it was the best thing to do. After all, the sudden disappearance of the fireflies had risen too much questions and he saw many ghosts trying to search for them.

He placed the medallion back inside of the box and buried it back on the place he had originally found them.

'_It's certainly a interesting place…It'll be fun to uncover all its secrets_.' he though as he returned to the werewolf village.

End of chapter 3

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update.

More Author Notes:

[1] Like the one he used to have when he was in college.

[2] I don't know who was the real creator of this food, but this is a fictional story.


	4. The New Teacher

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, writer-from-hell, Christopher Scott and aryaneragon4ever for your reviews. I hope you like this chapter as well.

* * *

Five years passed by after Daniel Plasmius was born. He became a quite active child which caused some trouble for his inexperienced father. It was almost dinner time and Danny was having some fun with Ember in the backyard of his home.

Danny and Ember quickly became good friends and sometimes the now nine-year-old, Johnny, played with them too. Vlad had told Danny about his mother, after all, he didn't want to let the boy to grow up having a wrong idea bout his mother's kin. He told him that Maddie had died of a disease when he was very young. He had considered telling him that she had died of childbirth, but he didn't want his son to feel guilty. Vlad had also asked everyone that knew about Maddie's true fate to **never** tell it to the boy. And, fortunately, they all agreed.

Danny was currently in his ghost form playing with Ember. The boy only felt the need to change to his human form every once in a while. Vlad didn't know the reason for that. But the boy needed to stay human for a couple of hours every couple of months. He had grown in that pattern after his second birthday.

Vlad, who was wearing a white shirt and trousers, went to check on both kids, in the backyard of his abode, when he saw them both running and laughing from Danny's nanny, Teresa. She was a quite old ghost, four hundred and thirty-two year-old to be exact. She always served the Plasmius family and she was happy about it. She had green skin and red eyes and grayish hair. She was wearing a blue dress, which was dirty because she had tripped while chasing after the two kids.

Danny was wearing a blue shirt and black pants while Ember was wearing a black dress, but she had to admit she didn't like her outfit very much. She could fly well, but running with it was quite a pain for her.

Teresa had to admit she was having some fun playing with kids. She has been the nanny of the Plasmius children for a long time. She even was James's nanny. After all, Vlad's father was just two hundred and five year-old. Because of the long life span among the ghosts, in order to not overpopulate it was a rule that the couples had three children at best, if they had more than that they would have to pay a quite high sum of money or work harder to pay for it. The only person that this rule didn't apply was to the king and his heirs. The king was only allowed to have one child, whether they're male or female. This rule was set to avoid bloody fights for the crown.

Teresa smiled and with a gentle smile she told both kids who were a few feet away from her: "Master Daniel, Miss Ember you really are full of energy, but…" then she suddenly teleported behind the two children grabbing both of them and using her own energy on her hands which strengthened her glow to prevent them from phasing through her grasp. "It's almost lunch time and you need to clean yourselves up. You can play more later."

Vlad chuckled at the scene. He remembered how he could never win against that older ghost. It was her who gave him lessons about teleportation, but the man could only perfect the technique after he heard about a research being made about ghost powers some years ago. Much before he even Maddie. The man shook his head trying to clear his head. It still hurt him knowing that his beloved was dead, but he knew she wouldn't like if he moped about it for the rest of his life. She would like him and Danny to be happy. And he was going to do his best to properly raise his kid.

Vlad approached them and told Teresa with a smile: "I'll take it from here. I hope they didn't give you much trouble."

The nanny chuckled light heartedly as she answered with mirth: "Quite on contrary, Master Plasmius. I love kids. Besides I already expected your kid to be as full energy as you and your father were."

Vlad chuckled as the nanny put the two kids back on the ground. The young hybrid quickly ran to his father and hugged him: "Hi, daddy!" he said cheerfully.

Vlad kneeled and hugged his son back and told him while ruffling his white hair: "I'm glad that you're having fun, Daniel, but you shouldn't give your nanny such a hard time, you know?"

Danny just smiled in response, then he turned to Ember who was approaching them and the turned to his father and asked: "Daddy, can Ember have lunch with us?"

"Of course she will have the meal with us, my boy. In fact I already talked to Skulker about it before she came here. She'll have dinner with us as well. He'll pass by to pick her up at night. It's the least I can do for him after he let you spent the day in his house."

Both kids smiled with the news and Vlad was happy just by seeing his son happy. But then two white rings appeared on his waist and then Danny was in his human form. Vlad had to be glad that everyone in the area knew about Danny's half human status, even Ember.

Immediately Danny placed his hands over his ears to suppress the incoming pain. The young hybrid also didn't like turning human. Not only because he felt out of place among so many ghosts, but especially because his ears seemed to be ringing while he was in his human form and because of that he always stayed in bed until he could transform back to his ghost self. Vlad was also unaware why the boy couldn't transform back immediately like he did when his son was just a baby.

"Are you okay, Danny?" asked Ember concerned. She had seen Danny's human half before, in fact she thought he looked 'nicer' in his human form. But she also thought it must hurt him for some reason to remain in his human form.

"Y-yes…" the boy managed to say. It looked like everytime he turned human his ears would ring louder. He didn't like this feeling one bit.

Vlad sighed as he picked up his son to tend to him. He looked to Teresa and told her: "Miss Teresa, could you take care of Ember for now? I'll tend to Daniel until he can turn back to his ghost self."

The nanny nodded, but Ember was really concerned about her friend: "Can I stay near Danny? I'm worried."

Both adults smiled and Vlad told her: "Actually both of you need to clean up first. When you're done, your more than welcome to keep us company, Ember. I think Danny'll appreciate it."

Ember smiled in response. Than after both kids got cleaned up and dressed up with some clean clothing, the lunch wasn't served until a few hours later until Danny could finally turn back to his ghost self. The ringing was gone, but left an awful feeling in his ear, like it always happened, but, fortunately, it always disappeared after a couple of hours.

After everyone had lunch, the kids started playing some board games, like chess. Vlad knew that this game was complicated, especially for really young kids, but the parent wanted to his son to get used with the rules. But Danny didn't like the game very much, because he had to constantly remember about all the possible moves he could do, so he only played it with his father, because Ember also didn't like the game much either.

After the two kids fell asleep at about 4 p.m., Vlad tucked both on Danny's bed and watched them for a while until he heard someone knocking at the door. It was Wulf, who was wearing his favorite green shirt and pants.

Vlad smiled as he approached his furry friend. They shook their hands and Vlad asked: "Wulf? I'm glad you came. Care to stay here for dinner? I would be glad if you joined us. But, what brings you here? I thought you were going to take a day off from teaching Danny."

"Thanks for the invitation, my friend, but I'm really sorry. I won't be able to continue with my task to teach your boy…" Wulf said with a sad tone.

Vlad's eyebrows creased. He wasn't mad at his friend, he was just confused by seeing him giving up on the task. It wasn't like it was an obligation, but it still made the parent wonder why he would not want to teach Danny anymore.

The werewolf noticed Vlad's confused face and tried to explain the best he could: "You see, my father wants me to start training to become the next leader for my village and he wants me to stay there all the time and help him out in his duties to make me earn some experience at it."

Vlad then said in realization: "Oh! Well, there's no problem in that. I'm glad you could help my son so far, but I'll make sure to prepare Daniel to the entrance exam when he reaches the age of ten."

Wulf shook his head and continued: "But I promised you that you son would receive the best education as possible. But I can find a substitute for me and he's a better teacher than me, actually."

Vlad raised an eyebrow doubting that someone could be smarter than his furry friend: "Really? Who's it?"

Wulf smiled softly as he explained to Vlad: "Well, he's a childhood friend who taught me everything I know now…"

* * *

At night of that same day, in a castle located in the center of the Dead Forest, more specifically in the royal chambers, the king of all ghosts, Pariah Dark was lying on his bed without being able to sleep. He was covered by a dark blue sheet while he wore a black night clothing with a flaming green crown printed on the shirt just above his heart.

He gave a frustrated growl as he thought about what he had just discovered with his vulture scouts. He had sent Aragorn and Dora to investigate their disappearance. He originally thought that the stupid birds had gotten lost and forgot their way home. But for five years?

The two dragons overheard two human guards talking about how they liked the anti-ghost gear. Aragorn grabbed both soldiers and tried to turn them invisible, but it seemed not to work on them, so they took them to a deserted area for a quick interrogation.

The guards might be protected from the ghosts' invisibility, intangibility, ecto-blasts and other flashy powers, but the ghost-proof gear wouldn't be able to null the massive physical strength from the huge ghosts.

The humans ended up telling them everything they knew, which was just that some ghost birds were captured, that a noble whose name they could not remember created anti-ghost armors and weapons and also that the man made a public demonstration of what his weapons could do to the birds after he got permission of the kings Manson and Irongrip. It was imperative for the kings to show their people that they had the means to fight against such mighty creatures like the ghosts. Each bird was killed in a different kingdom for that purpose. And the vultures also didn't help one bit when they kept threatening the humans about a ghost retaliation for what they were doing with them.

In the end, Aragon got furious with the two men and crushed both with his dragon paws. His sister disapproved his act, but she didn't voice anything. All she did was tell Aragorn to report what they discovered to King Pariah Dark.

The ghost king was furious to say the least. He didn't know what possibly could have crossed the minds of the humans to even dare thinking about invading his domains. He wasn't very concerned about the so called anti-ghost material. As far as what the dragon siblings reported they had at least managed to kill a couple of guards who were wearing such a thing to begin with.

Then he felt a hand over his muscular chest. He looked to his right and saw tat that his wife was looking at him with a grin. She was red-haired and green eyes. She was wearing a red night clothing with the same flaming green crown on her clothing. Her name was Penelope Spectra Dark.

"What troubles you, my dear?" said Spectra. She could feel her husband's distress and anger. She felt very tempted to feed off of his misery, but she knew better. Pariah would notice if she used her powers on him and she also knew that he had no mercy to people who betrayed him, even if the person was his own wife.

Pariah gave a heavy sigh before he answered: "I hate humans! That's why I decided to cut any relationship between our kinds two hundred years ago. They're disgusting and not trustworthy and now while we speak they're arming themselves against my kingdom!"

Spectra smiled darkly as she moved herself to stay over Pariah's massive form. She looked into her husband's eyes and told him: "Why not kill them all? After all, they're like insects. Nobody feels guilty when they stomp a bug or something like that. They're that insignificant and not worthy of concern."

Pariah just looked at her for a while. He was already planning on doing that. But he was wondering why would his wife be so interested in it as well. After a couple of minutes his eyes went wide in realization and he chuckled darkly before he said: "Thinking with your stomach again, my dear? Don't worry, I'll make sure to keep some humans alive so you can delight yourself feeding off their misery for the rest of their lives. Well, if they manage to have kids you can end up having a good supply of misery for a long time."

Spectra smiled and gave her husband a kiss. After she broke it she said placing her hands on his cheeks: "Thank you, my king. So do you have any plans yet?"

King Pariah didn't like much to discuss war plans with his wife, but he decided to give her an explanation that could satisfy her: "Let's just say I don't intend to let them be the ones to attack first."

* * *

In the werewolf village, that same mysterious silver werewolf was at his father's library studying while sitting on a chair while he meditated about what he had figured it out so far about the 'Cave of Beginning'. He wore a simple grey shirt with brown trousers. He still wasn't able to enter it, which frustrated him greatly, but he refused to give up. He experimented with every possibility he could think of.

In his attempts to enter into that place, he discovered something really odd about it. It only blocked things and beings that contained spectral energy. He had discovered that after throwing in several objects. Stones, branches from normal trees located out of the Dead Forest, small pieces of human clothing he collected all got inside of the cave, however, the branches from the trees of the Dead Forest, and ghost clothing hit the invisible wall.

He also tried to see if the problem was with living beings, so he got a white rabbit in a trap he set in the human's domain and took it with him. The rabbit both got in and out of the structure.

The lycanthrope even tried to see if the problem was just with him and picked up fur from other werewolves and even some hair of other ghosts and, after putting them all on the palm of his hand, he blew it really close to the entrance and they all collided with the invisible wall.

But it only rose questions in his mind. Who build built that thing? Why would he place it inside of the Dead Forest and make it ghost proof? How precious is the secret it holds? After all if someone placed such a strong barrier, what is hidden in the depths of that building must be the secret of the ghosts existence or something equally as important.

He closed the book not being able to actually focus on its contents and gave a tired sigh. All those night trips to that building were taking a huge toll on him. He had bags under his eyes and had no idea what to do. He could try 'persuade' a human to go inside of it and bring him what could be inside of that place, but he wasn't about to trust a complete stranger to do it. If that place really held the secret about the ghost's origin, the human could use it against him and all his kin.

The silver werewolf jolted when he felt someone placing a hand over his right shoulder and saying: "Hey, Alphonse[1]. Do you have a minute?"

The silver lycanthrope looked over his shoulder and recognized Wulf grinning at him. "What do you want?" asked Alphonse recognizing that grin on Wulf's face.

Every time the black furred werewolf smiled like that it was because he wanted Alphonse to do a favor for him. It has been like that since the two were cubs.

"Well, I've been wondering if you could help me out with something…" Wulf started.

Alphonse sighed as he gave the other lycanthrope a tired look while he thought: _'I knew it…' _But he answered him anyway: "What is it, Wulf? I'm tired right now."

The standing werewolf rubbed the back of his head while he thought of a good way of asking it. He knew Alphonse was the best person for the job, but he also was aware of his stubbornness. He had noticed how his childhood friend has been quite tired during the last years and every time he tried to talk to him, he would quickly dismiss Wulf and tell him everything was okay, which obviously wasn't.

"You see. I have a friend who has a son and…" Wulf started again only to be cut off.

"No." Alphosne said bluntly.

Wulf's eyebrows creased and he said: "You didn't even let me finish!"

Alphonse sighed and explained: "You want me to waste my time giving someone else's kid who I don't even know or care about private lessons. Do it yourself! I'm busy."

Wulf didn't like his tone. Well, he did expect him to refuse, after all the silver werewolf never liked much non-werewolf ghosts, besides adding that to his anti-social nature also made things harder. Wulf always tried to be friends with Alphonse. The black werewolf believed that the silver one had a good heart because when they were kids, Alphonse helped Wulf with his studies. But what the standing lycanthrope didn't know were his motives. Wulf always believed because Alphonse helped him because he was nice, but he didn't know that Alphonse was forced by his father to help Wulf out, because Wulf was the son of the leader of the werewolf village.

And because Wulf was the son of the leader of the werewolf village, there would be consequences if he didn't help him. In fact, he knew all too well how the ghost society worked: They had several different areas, all populated ones had a leader who was responsible of taking care of his area, but they all had to collect taxes to the Ghost King and obey his rules, if a village obeyed all of Pariah's rules they would be left alone and they had some sort of degree of freedom. The title of leader was hereditary and a ghost leader of an area could only be stripped from his title if he, or she, did a poor job at it. The leader, then, would be a person that the ghost king would choose himself and all werewolves knew how horrible it would be for them if that happened, because all substitutes Pariah Dark had indicated so far were notorious for their cruelty and seriousness. King Pariah did nothing with his substitutes, because even if they treated the village badly, they still obeyed the king's rules, so Pariah considered the substitutes he indicated as punishment for the village for daring to disobey him.

The thing was that Alphonse never told Wulf about what made him help the other werewolf back then. The silver werewolf couldn't understand how could Wulf like him so much just because of something he considered to be insignificant.

Wulf tried to persuade him once again: "Look, he's the son of a very good friend of mine and if I could keep teaching him, I would! The problem is that dad now wants me to intensify my training to be the next village leader and because of that I won't be able to get out of here as much as before. Please, do this for me. I promise I'll never ask you anymore favors after this!"

Alphonse was going to refuse. He didn't want to 'waste' time he could use to figure the Cave of Beginning out in teaching a kid. But before he could voice his decision he heard a familiar voice answering for him: "Of course he will, Wulf. My son would be glad in assist you." Said a tall also silver werewolf wearing a bright yellow clothing;. His name was Wolfgang.

Wulf looked unsure at the older werewolf then he looked back to Alphonse. The black werewolf could see that the werewolf next to him visibly cringed when he father answered for him. He didn't understand why Alphonse reacted that way when his father showed up. Wulf always considered Wolfgang to be a quite nice person and he was also pretty famous for making many breakthroughs about ghost's biology.

What the son of the lycanthrope leader didn't know was that the person who truly made all those discoveries was actually Alphonse. Fifteen years ago, Wolfgang had found in his son's room all his research about ghost biology. It showed a better way of how ghosts could channel their energy to improve their variety of powers. Because of it, the ghosts were now able to fire more powerful ecto-blasts, remain invisible, intangible for a longer time and even a way to make teleportation more accurate.

Wolfgang went to the ghost king and presented his son's research as if it were his own, stealing all his credit. When Alphonse tried to confront his father, Wolfgang told him that no one would believe him without evidence and that he would just look like an insolent brat. He finished saying that Alphonse only existed to make his life better and told his son in a mocking tone to 'keep up the good work'.

That was the reason why Alphonse never again left anything written ever again. All his latest finding was in his mind only. He couldn't even decide if he should get angry or laughed at his father whenever he saw him searching for more stuff to steal from him.

Alphonse was really glad that he decided to left the medallion in the box in the depths of the Dead Forest. He didn't want his dad finding it out and besides, now that the fireflies were back, no one has been snooping around in the dark of the night in search for them. He was also glad that his father didn't have the intellect to put two and two together and figure it out that his tiredness and the lack of new projects were linked to the brief disappearance of the fireflies. But not many people would associate these things together, anyway. That was his consolation.

Wolfgang was suspicious of his son. He has been too tired lately and he tried to keep an eye on him, but he always fell asleep when he tried to do it. He was getting impatient with him, but he was sure that whatever his son was plotting he could outsmart him eventually and take the glory for himself. But now he was more concerned in gaining some more 'positive points' with Wulf's father.

"Well, son, you can go teach the boy, but you don't have to, unless you're working on something important lately, of course." Wolfgang said smiling.

But the younger silver werewolf could see through his father's words. He knew of his true intentions. If he chose to help Wulf out, his father would have an excuse to talk with Wulf's father, Nicolas, to get a favor or something and if Alphonse denied, Wolgang would be now sure that his son was working on something big. And Alphonse would never allow his father try take over something he discovered ever again.

"Very well, I shall teach him. What's his name, anyway?" Alphonse said trying to cool down. No one knew what he was working on. Besides, he could use some time to rest. He was pushing himself too hard and his mind hasn't been as sharp as the usual because of his tiredness and lack of sleep. _'A month or two of rest might be what I need to do in order to crack into the Cave of Beginning.' _he thought.

Wulf looked at the younger silver werewolf somewhat surprised seeing him to agree and then smiled a bit and said: "It's for Count Vlad's son, Daniel Plasmius."

End of chapter 4

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update.

More Author Notes:

[1]Yes, I'm using my old OC from my other DP fanfic, Werewolf Tales. Even though he's a ghost in this story, I'll keep all his personality traits in this story.


	5. Living and Learning Part 1

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott, writter-from-hell and aryaneagon4ever

* * *

Alphonse came by Plasmius abode a few days later after Wulf updated him with everything he had taught Daniel Plasmius so far. He also told him about the boy's strength for literature but his weakness for math.

The lycanthrope wore a silver attire, carried a bag and had a bored look on his face. Wulf, who was wearing green clothing, was there at his side. He was there to properly introduce Alphonse, so the staff that worked for the Plasmius would get familiarized with him.

They were greeted by a maid and just her. Alphonse raised an eyebrow at that. It was really weird that there was no guards or whatsoever nearby. It was custom to have at least some guards to protect the noble families.

The reasons why the Plasmius didn't hire bodyguards were quite simple. Nobody dared to touch any noble family in the ghost kingdom. The punishment for it was severe. Besides, the oldest of the Plasmius knew very well that their maids were more than enough to protect themselves. James Plasmius himself had seen his former nanny, Teresa, angry once. Let's just say that he never dared to disagree with her even in his adulthood.

After the maid had greeted Wulf, she politely asked looking at the other werewolf: "Forgive me for my curiosity, but is this fine sir going to be young master Daniel's new teacher, Professor Wulf?"

Alphonse looked at the black werewolf and raised an eyebrow: "**Professor** Wulf?"

Wulf scratched the back of his head and replied him: "You know that I'm not a teacher of the 'Lycan School' like you and that I'm not officially the leader of our people yet, but the staff here wouldn't call me by my name only even if I begged. They call me like that because I've been teaching Danny since he was four."

"I see…" the other werewolf replied at least being thankful that the staff in this abode knew the meaning of 'respect'. At least by his standards.

The maid guided both lycanthropes to the Plasmius's personal library. After both got into it, she said: "I'll call the Count. Please wait here" Then she closed the door.

It was that room where Wulf always gave Danny the private lessons. When they got into the library, Alphonse placed his bag on top of a desk, then he went to check the bookshelves himself and was quite surprised to see the several bookshelves filled with…well… actual books. The silver lycanthrope thought they would have fairy tails and such for the kid and that he would have to bring his own material from his home, but they had a pretty vast material. Math, History, Geography, language books name it and they had it.

He didn't know that the Plasmiuses weren't like most of the nobles who just kept books for their own entertainment. But he recognized that most of the books were written by the werewolves, because of the cover. Most of the books had three vertical slashes on the top right above of the title. The mark was made by the claws of the lycanthrope who wrote it as a sign of the degree of difficulty of the book. Three marks was the level given to the equivalent of high school teachings.

As the silver werewolf picked up some books, he saw one that made him frown deeply, but he placed it back to its original place. He picked up some books with just one and two marks and placed them over a study table. Wulf just looked at the other werewolf as he noticed that he picked up some literature books with two marks, while the others were just one mark.

But before Wulf could question him, Alphonse asked first: "Was it you that brought all these books? I find hard to believe that they bought so many books out of pure curiosity. Besides, I saw a book with five slashes, Wulf. This kind of book is forbidden to leave our hometown! It's impossible for them to go to a store and buy it."

Wulf frowned as he replied: "Look, I bought that book myself and I don't see a problem in sharing some of our knowledge to the other kinds of ghosts. I mean ,what's up with this stupid law that five-slashed books are forbidden to the eyes of any other kind of ghost!"

Alphonse crossed his arms as he replied: "Knowledge is power, **dear friend. **Only the werewolves know about the existence of books with five marks. We have been living by this rule since the beginning to protect ourselves! Most of the content of these books are about ghost biology. It was already bad enough that my father went public with some information that I…I mean…Pariah and many other ghosts got even more powerful because of that! And the only reason he wasn't punished for that was because he gained the king's favor!" He made a short pause. True that Alphonse wanted the fame for himself, but he intended to show it only to his kin, he wanted to make his kin strong enough to the point they wouldn't have to fear Pariah or even any Ghost king for that matter. He had lots of pride about being a werewolf.

Then the silver werewolf approached Wulf and pointed an accusatory finger at him "What if they discover a book about **our **biology? Do you have any idea of what Pariah would do to us if he ever put his hands on this kind of knowledge?"

Wulf's ears lowered a bit, but he defended himself ignoring the sudden pause made by Alphonse when he talked about "his father's" discovery: "Of course I wouldn't give them any book about it! Didn't you read the title of the book with five marks? It's about the constitution of the freaking dead trees! We shouldn't shut down all profound studies just for ourselves!"

"Oh, please! You clearly have been too much time interacting with these people. You're seriously putting them before your own kin!"

Wulf didn't like his tone one bit and he replied back: "Why are you being so hostile? If you didn't want to come, why did you even agree in helping me?"

But this time Alphonse didn't reply. He wasn't going to let his anger speak for him and ruin his façade. "Argh! Just make sure to not do anything stupid! I'm not going to help you if something bad happens from your doings." He told him with a calmer voice.

Wulf crossed his arms and told him seriously: "Honestly, I don't get you and your mood swings sometimes."

But Alphonse just rolled his eyes not in the mood to continue the argument. He decided to just change the subject: "So, when is this kid going to show up, anyway?"

Wulf clearly noticed the abrupt change in the subject. But if his friend didn't want to fight anymore, so he wasn't going to either. "I don't know, but he must be arriving pretty soon." But then Wulf decided to ask him something that was bothering him for a bit: "Why did you get a two-mark literature book, anyway?"

Alphonse raised an eyebrow and told him: "Didn't you say that the boy was good at this? So I intend to push him a little harder in this subject. I know he's just five, but starting soon with the more advanced classes will guarantee him a good score in the entrance exam at the 'Lycan School'."

"Don't push him too hard, you know. He's just a small child. But he's quite bright…I guess the two of you are going to get along." He said finishing his sentence with a small smile.

Alphonse just rolled his eyes again not really caring. He didn't like kids very much. In his eyes, kids lacked discipline and they spaced out a lot in his classes. Thankfully, for Alphonse he only had to come by at Plasmius abode three times a week, on Sunday, Wednesday and Fridays, and, of course, only after his classes at the Lycan School.

Then the door opened revealing Vlad carrying Danny in his arms. Vlad wore a white attire while Daniel wore a black one. The blue skinned ghost gave a good look at the silver unknown werewolf. But he shook his head trying to get rid of the suspiciousness even though his fatherly intincts instincts were telling him otherwise. After all, Wulf trusted him, so there was no need to be wary of him.

"Hi, Mister Wulf!" Danny greeted cheerfully.

The black lycanthrope smiled and replied: "It's good to see you again, Danny." Then he looked to Alphonse then back to Vlad: "This is Alphonse. He's good friend of mine and, with all honesty, is a very much better teacher than I am."

Alphonse didn't even bulge with the compliment, but he resisted the urge to frown, but seeing how 'cheerful' the kid was, he gave the best smile he could fake. In the silver lycanthrope's experience, so far, with kids, children with so much energy barely focused on their studies.

"Are you Daniel Plasmius?" Alphonse asked. It was obvious for him that the little boy was him, but he asked anyway out of pure politeness.

Danny nodded vigorously "Yes! You can call me Danny, Mister…" the kid wasn't able to finish his sentence. He had never seen that other werewolf before, but the boy assumed he was just as fun to be with as Wulf.

"You can call me Mister Alphonse, but I would rather if you refer to me as 'teacher'." But after a short pause he decided to humor the boy a bit just to at least please the kid's father who was still looking at him strangely. "How old are you?" he asked forcing a smile.

Danny proudly showed the palm of his right hand with his fingers stretched. "I'm this much!"

The silver werewolf forced another smile and told him: "Five years? You sure are a big boy. You must be really smart. Wulf told me so. If you keep up like this you might surpass everyone here."

Danny's grin went wider blushing a bit by the compliment. Vlad looked at the silver werewolf amused, while Wulf still was confused by the lycanthrope's weird mood swings.

The truth was that just because Alphonse didn't like kids very much, it didn't mean that he didn't know how to handle them. The silver lycanthrope spoke again: "Why don't you come over here? I have a few questions I would like you to answer before we start our classes. You only have to answer these today." Then he picked up from his bag some pieces of papers full of questions he had made.

"Okay…" Danny asked a bit unsure. He wondered why he had to make an exam right off the bat with his knew teacher.

Vlad placed his son on the floor and allowed him to go to the desk to answer the exam. The difficulty of most of the questions was from one-mark books, but he included some of two-marks to test if the boy was really as good as Wulf said he was.

Wulf immediately figured out Alphonse's intentions when he looked at the questions over Danny's shoulder, but he said nothing. He even agreed with that, because He started to see some logic in his friend's idea and he was sure that Danny could answer some of the most difficult problems in those papers.

The three adults waited as Danny finished the exam. But Vlad was curious about the new teacher with a low tone, because he didn't want to distract his son: "So, Professor Alphonse, Wulf told me that you teach at the Lycan School. What do you teach exactly?"

"I teach two subjects there: Math and Physics." Replied the silver werewolf with also a low tone picking up the reason why the blue skinned man was talking like that.

"I see…I remember that I used to hate those subjects." Vlad gave a small chuckle then continued: "My favorite subjects were the ones that involved the control of our powers."

Wulf grinned as he said: "I remember that. You always aced those subjects. You were the first of the students of your class who was able to teleport, wasn't it?"

"Yes. I hope Daniel will pass in the entrance exam. I heard it has become much harder, hasn't it?" Vlad asked the silver lycanthrope a bit worried.

"Yes, it has…The school board had to add a lot more information in the entrance exam because many things were discovered in the past years. It's only natural that the kids today must be pushed harder." Then he decided to reply something that Vladimir had said a few moments ago: "I don't know how good your son is with his powers, but there's no more practical exam to enter into the Lycan School. In another words, he has to learn things he might not like in order to pass. Brains over matter is always what I say. It won't matter if the boy can make a huge hole in the ground if he can't solve problems."

Vlad's eyebrows creased a bit at his commentary, but Wulf quickly calmed down his friend by whispering in his ear: "Don't mind that. He's always like this. But he's a very good teacher. Your son is in very good hands."

But Vlad's instincts told him to do something about that whole situation. The man didn't understand why, but he told himself that he was feeling like this just because Alphonse didn't know about Danny's secret. Wulf didn't have to tell the parent that he didn't tell anyone about Danny's half-ghost/half-human status, because he wouldn't dare reveal Danny's secret to anyone without Vlad's permission.

Vlad saw no problem that Danny was half-human and half-ghost and didn't like knowing that his own kin my turn against him just because of something so petty. But he had to concede that he still hated the man who ordered the death of his beloved.

But this was the problem. Because of the evil doings of a few humans, the entire race was hated as if everyone was guilty by something that just one person did. The only problem was Daniel's sudden transformations into human. Fortunately it could be easily handled giving a few days off to the boy when the time approached. It usually came exactly after every two months by now.

When Daniel finished he said a bit gloomy: "I'm done…but I couldn't answer everything…"

"It's alright. As long as you did your best. It was a pretty hard exam anyway." Alphonse said trying to cheer him up.

He took the papers from him and examined them. The boy had answered most of everything even some of the two-marks level of questions. But he really had some difficulty with math, but the result was quite impressive. "You did very well. I'm going to prepare lessons based on the result of this exam. Prepare yourself, because I'm going to push your weakness for math away from you."

"Thank you, teacher." he said a bit unsure.

Vlad smiled proudly at his son as he picked him up then he said to the silver werewolf: "So is that it for today?"

Alphonse nodded as he said: "Yes. Our classes are going to start on next Monday at 1 p.m. and they're going to last until 5 p.m.. And they are going to be on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Is that okay with you? Well, Wulf has been doing the exact same thing."

"Yes, there's no problem with this schedule." Vlad said.

"Very well. Now I shall go back to my home now. I still have a few pending **issues** I would like to finish before I can make a proper schedule for young Daniel. I need to go home now."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here for dinner?" Vlad offered him, but when he got a 'no' from the silver lycanthrope he sighed and continued: "Very well, I'll call someone to guide you to the door." Then he left the room and found a maid nearby and asked her to take Alphonse to the front door.

"I'm going with you, Alphonse" Wulf said.

But then the silver werewolf told him with a calm voice: "You don't have to do this. You can stay, really. It's just I have things to resolve at my home first. Stay here and have some fun. I'll see you later, okay?" Alphonse cleverly dismissed Wulf who ended up agreeing with him.

Then Alphonse got out of the room this time memorizing his way around that place, because the last thing he wanted was to get lost in that place.

While the werewolf was walking his way out of the Plasmius's abode, he glanced back at some paintings, but just one called his attention. It was of a woman who was completely different from all other people portrayed in the paintings. She didn't have a blue skin, she didn't glow and she looked…human.

The lycanthrope raised an eyebrow and muttered to himself: "What the…"

* * *

The kings of Amikeko Parko[1], Batalo Babordo[2] and Malnova Pordo[3] weren't aware of Pariah's incoming plan of invasion, but they were discussing its possibility. The King of Amikeco Parko was sixty years old while the other two kings were both twenty-eight, because of that King John couldn't help but to feel a little superior, because he was a firm believer that age brought wisdom automatically, so he always thought that his decisions were always the right ones.

"I have summoned both of you here to share the latest discovery made by Baron Jack Fenton." King Manson started. "He discovered a long lost flower known as 'Bloody Blossom'. It was said that no ghost can endure its smell or even the mere touch of it. It's like…a ghost repellent." He finished with a grin.

King Irongrip did his best to not scoff at his words. _'If it weren't for Maddie's betrayal, the Baron would have married her and it would be a discovery only for my kingdom. I hate to have to play nice to get protection for my own home!' _he thought bitterly, but with a forced smile on the face.

"Is that so?" said King Baxter snapping King John out of his thoughts. "How is he so sure of it?"

"Well, _Baron _Jack Fenton made lots of experiments with these flowers and discovered that they had many traits similar to the ones of that weird green metal called Ectorranium. Besides, he told me that he kept the corpses of those three ghost birds to further experiments and they reacted really bad to the flowers. It was like their skin burned by the touch of the petals, so we can also assume that the smell is also very dangerous to the ghosts"

"How can you be so sure of it?" started King Irongrip incredulous. "I agreed in buying the Ectorranium because I knew it worked, but the smell of a mere **plant** is able to make the ghosts fly away in fear? How am I supposed to believe that?" he also resisted to the urge of accusing the man of making him buy those plants only to the purpose of give him money, but he knew that if he voiced it, there would be some serious problems between their kingdoms.

"Well, I trust what _the Baron _ says, after all he's a very bright man who spites ghosts. I already ordered to give seeds of Bloody Blossoms to every house in my kingdom to protect the citizens. We're going to give the ghosts a red carpet of death if they try to invade my lands!" King Mason said with a dark smirk.

"Your idea is brilliant! We should also place these flowers on our walls and castles as well!" suggested King Baxter.

King Manson nodded as he said: "You're absolutely correct about this. Besides, according to _the Baron _ the flower is edible for us, humans. But we should keep this information to ourselves, we don't want that the people end up eating their protection from the ghosts."

"Hmm. If this flower is like you're describing than it can be a better weapon than the Ectorranium metal!" said King Irongrip in realization.

"How?" asked the other two kings in union.

King John explained: "It's simple. We all now know that metals are scarce. We can end up depleting all sources of Ectorranium, but with this flower, which is a living being, we can have a permanent protection from the ghosts. Besides, if it's really edible, don't you think that a medicine could be made from it? I mean, if we or someone was to drink a potion made by Bloody Blossom's wouldn't it by itself give a human at least temporary immunity to ghost powers?"

"That's a very good idea, my good man. No wonder you're famous by your wisdom! I shall tell _the Baron_ what you suggested and see if it's possible for him to do such a thing." Said King Manson with a grin excited by that idea. But then he decided to change subject a little and turned to King Baxter "Allow me to change subject of this meeting a little, but how is your son doing, King William? He must be about four or five years by now, isn't he?" asked King Thurston curious.

King William just smiled proudly as he answered: "He's just completed five years. Dash is going to be a fine king someday. He's really active and quite strong for someone of his age."

King Manson chuckled as he answered: "Then we should make him meet my daughter, Samantha. She's about the same age as he is."

King Irongrip just watched the scene with a bitter taste in his mouth. He already found horrible the fact that his son-in-law was most likely going to inherit his kingdom, but seeing him trying to persuade King Manson to marry each of their own kids was what he needed to confirm something he was already suspicious of: William Baxter wanted to conquer their kingdoms. He was doing it without the need of a war and the oldest of the three men in the room sighed not knowing how he could save his kingdom, because he was losing hope that his wife would give him another child. Besides, he would not let King William have his lands like that. He would rather destroy the man first than let him inherit them.

End of chapter 5

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. please review

more author notes:

translatin to English:

[1]Amity Park

[2]Battle Port

[3]Old Gate


	6. Living and Learning Part 2

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott and aryaneragon4ever for your reviews. I hope you'll like this too.

* * *

Days passed by and it was now Monday. Danny's first class with Alphonse. The werewolf was walking with a maid near him and when they passed through Maddie's painting, the werewolf asked pointing at the picture: "Excuse me, but could you tell me who's she?"

The reason why the werewolf wanted to know about her was because he couldn't help but to feel curious about the person who stood out as a sore thumb among all the blue skinned people in the various drawings.

Turning and seeing the painting to which he was pointing, the maid immediately felt a chill go through her spine. She knew who that woman was. In fact, she thought Madeline to be a very kind human woman. However, she has been instructed not to tell strangers about young Daniel's half human status. Which was weird to say the least. If it were the case, why hang a portrait of her where anyone could see?

Actually, it was because Vlad wasn't ashamed of marrying a human. He felt no need of hiding it, especially because the number of guests who went through that specific hallway was rare.

The maid decided to talk to Master Vladimir Plasmius about this and suggest to reallocate her painting to prevent any stranger from seeing it. "I don't know who she is, Professor Alphonse. I never saw her here during my stay here." She lied and then she said: "Master Daniel is waiting for us in the library. Let's hurry."

If it weren't for her last two sentences, Alphonse would have believed her words. The werewolf felt like she was dodging the subject on purpose. But he guessed he could ask another person some other time.

When he got into the library, Danny was already sitting on a chair and his father was standing right next to him. They greeted each other and the lycanthrope moved near Danny and took out from the bag he brought with him a couple of two-marked books, one about literature and the other about astronomy, which were the subjects the boy was very strong at.

Vlad intended to watch the lessons for at least a couple of weeks to give himself a peace of mind about how exactly the silver lycanthrope intended to teach his son. He had no problems in leaving Wulf alone with Danny because he knew his furry friend since he was a kid.

But then the maid went to him and said with a very low tone of voice: "Master Plasmius, I have a very important thing to discuss with you now."

The blue-skinned ghost looked at his son and then told him: "Daddy will be back shortly. Okay, son?"

The boy turned and said: "Okay, daddy!" then he returned his attention to what Alphonse was teaching him.

After that, both Vlad and the maid went to outside of that room and closed the door behind them. The lycanthrope did hear what the maid had whispered due his sensitive ears. This only raised his curiosity even more. But he couldn't understand a thing they were talking about on the other side of the door. Because he suddenly paid more attention trying to figure it out what it was so important that couldn't be said in front of him, he completely forgot about the kid next to him.

Danny noticed the sudden silence from his new teacher and asked a bit unsure: "Teacher?"

The boy's words brought the lycanthrope back to the reality. "Oh…" was all the lycanthrope could say at the moment. The werewolf felt like there was something really weird about that family.

Danny just looked at the werewolf, who was staring at the book in his hands lost in his thoughts once again. The kid wondered why he was like that. Wulf was always cheerful, but this werewolf looked…too serious. That was as far as Danny could understand about him.

Alphonse finally noticed the kid staring at him and he was annoyed by that. But he didn't voice it. Instead, he just continued where he stopped on his lessons as if he hadn't made any break at all. This confused Danny.

Vlad returned to the room only an hour later. Fortunately, Danny was focused on the lesson and he didn't notice the time pass by, but the werewolf did. Alphonse decided to focus on the lesson and just get done with it.

At the end of the class, Danny got up of his chair and stretched his arms. Vlad chuckled seeing his obvious mentally tired son. The parent listened to the most of the lessons and he was quite surprised. Alphonse decided to teach him during the afternoons from 1 pm to 6 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Alphonse managed to explain more difficult subjects to his son and in a way that he was sure that Danny could understand. '_Looks like Wulf was right. He's a very good teacher. Maybe he's trustworthy after all. I shouldn't have doubted Wulf.' _ Vlad thought.

Alphonse packed his materials and said with a forced smile, but without lying: "You are a very bright kid. You learn quite fast for someone of your age. If you continue to display such improvement, you'll surely ace the entrance exam to Lycan school."

Hearing this, Danny blinked a few times and asked to his father: "Daddy, are Ember and Johnny going to Lycan School too?"

Vlad just picked his son from the floor and held him with his arms: "I don't know, son. I guess they are. Skulker hired a teacher for his kids too."

Danny's eyebrows creased as he replied: "If they aren't going, I don't wanna go too!"

But that conversation deeply annoyed the silver werewolf making him frown at that: "So, you're saying that you're going to throw away the best education you could ever have for friends who couldn't keep up with your intellect? Would you throw away your future for people that might not even be your friends anymore in ten years?" Alphonse was going to continue it, but after seeing Vlad's shocked expression, the werewolf mentally cringed.

"Please forgive me for going too far, Your Grace…" he quickly apologized. "This wasn't of my business to begin with…" then he packed all his things and said: "We'll continue on Wednesday. I'll be going now. I know my way out." Then he rushed out of the room.

Vlad was taken aback and was frozen for a few seconds, which was enough for Alphonse to go past him. '_What just happened here?'_ the parent and son thought in union unsure of the odd behavior displayed by the lycanthrope.

As the werewolf left the room he noticed something that made him stop. The place where Madeline's portrait had once been displayed, was now replaced by another one, which showed Vlad carrying Danny in his arms. The boy seemed to be just three years old in that painting.

"What…" he said to himself.

But, then, a maid showed up and offered herself to guide Alphonse. It was the same maid that guided him when he came to the mansion earlier in that day. The werewolf swallowed dryly and he managed to force a smile not wanting to displease Count Vlad any further: "Y-yes. I would appreciate that."

But this time the walk was awkwardly silent. Before the werewolf left the mansion, back to his home he couldn't help but to think: '_What are these people up to?…'_

On the next Wednesday, Alphonse returned to the Plasmius's abode a bit unsure. To his surprise he was greeted by Vladimir Plasmius himself. Alphonse visibly tensed as he said: "Good afternoon, Your Grace."

Vlad had a solemn expression "Good after, Professor Alphonse. Would you mind to come with me for a while before you start your class with my son?"

'_As if I could say 'no' to that…' _he thought before he answered: "Of course…"

Vlad then guided him to a living room and said: "Please take a seat."

Alphonse sat on a red couch adorned with gold while Vlad sat on a chair opposite to him. The werewolf felt very uncomfortable with all that situation, but he knew why he was there and he tried to explain himself: "Your Grace, I…"

But he was cut off by Vlad raising his hand telling him to stop talking. "You don't have to apologize any further. I didn't call you here for that. I merely wish to know better about the person who's teaching my son. I mean, I know Wulf since I was a kid. But I don't know much about you, just that you're his friend. Mind telling me something about yourself?"

'_He brought me here to chit chat? Is he some kind of fruitloop?' _Alphonse thought blinking a few times before he answered being as truthful and brief as possible: "There isn't much about me, Your Grace. I was born and raised in the Werewolf Village. I devoted my life to my studies and now I'm a teacher at the Lycan School."

The werewolf wasn't going to tell that man about his personal life and he was ready to lie if it needed. The lycanthrope was very cautious and wasn't going to allow the ghost in front of him to discover the true reason why he was teaching his son.

Vlad scratched his goatee and spoke again: " Do you really think that studies and a good life in the future are more important than friends?"

Alphonse was very careful in his response: "I think that if said friends drag you down and ruin your future, they aren't really your friends."

Vlad raised an eyebrow: "Did you have any personal experience about this?"

"I can't say I had 'friends' that dragged me down. But I've seen this happen with people I knew…Your son has lots of potential. I just think that it would be a waste for him to give up of the best education he could receive just to attend to the same school as his friends. It's not like he won't be able to see them during the vacations or when he graduates."

"I see…" Vlad said with thoughtfully. But then he got up and said: "I agree that the Lycan School can give my son the best education from **books**. It's not my place to criticize you. You have your reasons to think this way. But I think friends are important as well for a healthy development of any child and no matter which school Danny will attend, I'm sure that he'll do his best in his studies, you have to agree in at least that."

Alphonse just stared at the ghost in front of him doing his best to not show his boredom by the 'friendship speech' Vlad gave him. But he just wanted to end with that 'torment' as soon as possible, so he decided to humor him: "Yes, I guess you're right about that. As long as your son is happy in what he is doing."

Vlad finally smiled as he nodded and said: "I'm really glad we had this talk, but I think we should go to the library now. My son might be worried."

But Alphonse didn't reply to that as he just followed the man to the place where Danny was waiting. The boy was both worried and bored waiting so much in the library. He wasn't alone, though. Teresa was there keeping the boy some company and to prevent that anything bad happened to the child.

Vlad didn't want his son to hear the conversation he had with the lycanthrope because the parent didn't know if the discussion would be heated or not. Vladimir was glad that Alphonse could understand his point of view and with a bit of luck he wouldn't touch on that same subject again.

The rest of the week went as normal as it could have been. Alphonse came on Friday and gave Danny some more classes. Vlad, of course, was there during them just to make sure nothing bad would happen.

But Alphonse was still very curious about that woman's portrait which was once displayed and now was gone. When the lycanthrope finished his last lesson of the week, Vlad Plasmius invited the werewolf to have dinner with his family, but he refused the offer politely. Vlad sighed but guided the lycanthrope to the door himself.

"Professor Alphonse, would you mind if I ask you a question?" Vlad suddenly asked before the werewolf left the house.

Alphonse turned and replied tiredly. He didn't want to have another awkward conversation like the one he had on that Wednesday. But he answered politely: "Yes, Your Grace. What is it?"

Vlad looked away for a couple of seconds, but then he returned his look to Alphonse and asked: "What's your opinion about humans?"

"What?" the lycanthrope asked taken aback by the unexpected question.

Seeing his reaction, Vlad immediately said: "Never mind that. Sorry for bothering, have a good weekend, Professor Alphonse."

"Thank you…" the werewolf answered not knowing what to answer for the first time in a long time. Then he left the house really confused. But he suddenly halted and turned his look back to the abode. _It can't be…can it?'_

Vlad had closed the doors and, therefore, he didn't see the werewolf actions. The man gave a heavy sigh. _'What am I thinking…it's much safer to ask Wulf about that. He must know what Alphonse thinks of humans. I can't have a teacher that hates them in my house. What If Danny transformed OR transforms into human in front of him by accident…'_ Then he shook away his thoughts and tried to cheer himself up. After all he had a big surprise planned for his son the next day and he didn't want to ruin the mood for it.

On the next day, at morning, of that same week, Eric Plasmius got into his parents abode and saw Danny running through the halls happily. He seemed to be carrying some random stuff such as food, clothes and a…fishing pole?

The man was wearing his armor, but he was holding his helmet with his left hand. He got near his nephew and asked: "Daniel, what are all these things for?"

He boy looked at him happily and answered: "Hi, Uncle Eric! Daddy is going to take me camping with Mister Skulker and his son. He said it was a father-son weekend."

The general didn't like hearing that and then he asked: "Where is your father?"

Danny didn't like his uncle's tone. The boy could see that his uncle was very angry. He often heard him and his father arguing. Mostly about him. Fright Knight kept telling Vlad to make the boy have classes to learn how to swordfight and train to become a knight.

However Vlad wasn't fond of the idea of his five-year-old child learning how to fight. Besides, the parent wanted Danny to have an innocent childhood. He didn't want to see his son meddled in the affairs of King Pariah.

But Eric kept telling his brother that this was the only way to prevent Daniel from becoming a 'wimp like his father'. But of course Vlad felt enraged by the constant insults and also by the fact that Eric always implied that Vlad wasn't being a good father for giving his son so much attention and love and that the boy needed to experiment some rough situations in order to grow up as a decent adult.

Danny looked to his uncle for a little longer and he was questioned again by him this time even more fiercely: "Where is your father, Daniel? I don't believe I asked such a difficult question."

Fortunately, for the boy, Vlad came from behind and he wasn't happy at all: "I'm right here Eric." Then he looked to his son, who was obviously a bit frightened by Eric. "Danny, go to your room and finish packing your things. We should be leaving pretty soon."

Danny just nodded and left to his room hoping that his father and his uncle wouldn't start another argument.

"Why do you spoil him so much?" Eric asked frowning.

"Spoiling? If my memory serves right father took us for tons of camping trips when we were younger." Vlad did his best not to shout at his brother to so not scare his son any further and he said to his brother: "Let's go to the entrance. There my son and our parents won't be able to hear your stupid ranting. Besides it'll be faster for you to leave after that."

Eric glared at his younger brother a while, but he ended up conceding. Both adults went to the entrance of the mansion and Vlad asked: "Do you have a point here?"

But when Eric opened his mouth to answer, Vlad quickly cut him off: "Besides criticize my parenting skills?"

Eric's frown deepened as he snapped at his brother: "You really are a spoiled brat! You refuse to listen to what I have to say. You're not giving Daniel the proper training! Granted, you at least hired a werewolf teacher to give him a good education. But the boy lacks discipline!"

"So, your idea of discipline is that he swings a sword around? I don't remember our father forcing us to join Pariah's army! He only started to teach us swordfight when we reached the age of eight and it was just for us to learn to fend ourselves with weapons. If I must remind you, we have powers!"

"Of course we have powers, but we also need to develop our bodies as well! Daniel needs to be strong in every possible way! I can't even believe that you're this relaxed with your own son! Besides, even with all your ghost powers you never managed to defeat me while we sparred when we were younger and that's because I trained in many forms of combat and not just to rely on ecto-energy blasts! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I bet you barely train anymore, right?"

Vlad opened his mouth to reply, but no words came from his mouth. It was true that he rarely practiced his own powers after Daniel was born and that Eric was just getting stronger and stronger.

"I thought so." Said Fright Knight with a heavy sigh.

Eric then turned his back to his brother, placed his helmet back on and walked towards the door as he said: "There's one thing I need to talk with you before I leave. Pariah Dark is going to start a war against the humans. I think you should keep Daniel indoors for a while. Don't be reckless."

"Why did you tell me that?" Vlad asked actually surprised by his brother's words.

But Fright Knight didn't answer. He just opened the door and left the residence heading towards his winged horse '_I just don't want to see my nephew and little brother dead…'_ he thought before he mounted his animal and flew back to the castle.

Vlad gave a deep sigh as he went to his son's room. When he opened the door, he couldn't help but to smile softly seeing his son trying to close his overstuffed bag on his bed.

"Do you need help with that son?" The parent offered.

The child looked at him and said sounding tired: "Yes!" he had been struggling to close it for some time without any success.

The parent chuckled and moved towards the bed and using some strength he managed to close it. "There you go." he said turning to his son, who was smiling. "What's wrong, Danny?" he asked worried.

"Did you and Uncle Eric get in another fight because of me?" the boy asked fidgeting.

Vlad sighed and sat on his son's bed and told his son to get near him. The boy obeyed and when he got close enough, Vlad picked him up and placed him on his lap. "Son, my brother and I do argue, but it's not because of you. He's just hard headed most of times. Don't let it spoil our weekend, okay?"

Danny was still unsure. But he was glad that his uncle and father didn't argue for too long, this time. "Okay, daddy…"

Vlad sighed knowing that his son was still upset and to tell the truth what his brother said was still bothering him. But he was sure that his son was safe, after all he only turned into human every two months and he turned into his human half not even a month ago. Besides, he wasn't going to lock his son in his room for the rest of his life. He couldn't understand why the ghosts hated the humans so much.

He shook away his uncertainty hoping that this camping trip would at least improve the mood not only of his son, but also his own.

End of chapter 6

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update.


	7. Living and Learning Part 3

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, writer-from-hell and Christopher Scott for your reviews. I really appreciate them.

* * *

Vlad and Danny got ready for the camping trip. They both said their byes to James and Christine Plasmius. The oldest male of the Plasmius family could remember his camping trips he did with his sons and even the ones he used to do with his father.

James and Christine were in their room reading a few new books they have bought from the Werewolf Village. The couple liked reading. The woman suddenly closed her book and put it aside. Then she turned to her husband and said hugging him: "Dear, have you ever got the impression that our kids grow up too fast?"

The man smiled at his wife and said: "Honey, they all have to grow up someday. Eric is the king's general and Vlad's doing a great job at raising Daniel and dealing with our family's business. He managed to close a very good deal with the Nightshade family. He managed to build a jewel crafting workshop right next to that mine he discovered. He sold them many medium quality jewelry at the price of high quality ones and without deceiving them! He has a soul for business." He finished with a light chuckle.

Christine stared at her husband for a while, gently caressing her husband chest. "You know that I'll always miss the good old days. It even seems like it was just yesterday that Eric was born."

James had stopped reading his own book, and also placing it aside, he turned to his wife and then hugged her back. Staring deep into her eyes, he kissed her gently. "They're going to be alright, my beloved. A good parent knows when to let a child to walk on their own. We can't make them stay under our wings forever."

The woman knew that her husband talked the truth, but she couldn't deny her own motherly instincts. She was really happy that her grandson managed to survive such an unusual birth and at the same time she was saddened because the hybrid's mother wasn't there to share the happiness of seeing Danny grow up.

After a few more minutes of just cuddling on the bed, the ghost woman decided to shake away those sad thoughts and wanted to tease her husband a little bit. Then she moved herself to stay on top of her husband, making his lie over his back again. She smiled and said: "What do you say? We're completely alone in our house for today, how about if we make use of this opportunity the best we can?" she said with a seductive smile.

The man just grinned widely and replied: "So do you want to play chess?"

Christine rolled her eyes. _Is 'cluelessness' part of the males of our family or what?'

* * *

_

Vlad and Danny went to meet Sklulker in the meeting place. It was in one of the rare clearings in the Dead Forest, which happened to be near a river. Skulker and Johnny were already there waiting for them.

As soon as Danny spotted Johnny he ran towards him and said with a big smile: "Hi Johnny!" then he looked around and saw no sign of Ember. "Where's Ember?"

"I'm right here!" She said coming out of a tree and hugging Danny from behind.

Vlad raised an amused eyebrow and asked Skulker: "You brought Ember too?"

Skulker nodded and said scratching the back of his head: "You see, I thought that it would be unfair to not bring her here. She really wanted to come with us and, well, you know all the pressure girls have. They have to obey tons of behavior rules and such. My little girl was doing a very good job to keep up with the expectations laid upon her and no one saw a problem to bring her here for a change. It'll do her some good to let her just be herself for a change."

Vlad nodded in agreement. The black-haired ghost saw that Skulker brought some fishing poles as well and then he turned to the kids and suggested to them: "Why don't you go try catching some fish while we set the camp, hmm?"

The three kids smiled brightly with the suggestion and they picked up their fishing poles and buckets.

"I bet I can catch a bigger fish than you!" Danny said to Johnny challenging him.

"Oh really? Let's see about that!" Johnny replied with a cocky grin.

"No. I'll be the one to catch the bigger fish!" said Ember not wanting to lose.

Both parents chuckled at the sight of their children fishing. "You know, most of nobles would have a heart attack if they saw us in the wild like this." Skulker said smiling as he set the camp tents.

Vlad was taking care of unloading and organizing all their material. He looked at Skulker and said: "You're right about that. They don't know what they're missing!"

Skulker just nodded. When both adults finished setting the camp they saw their kids arriving with buckets full of fish. Skulker had taught the three of them how to fish one time when Danny was passing a few days at Skulker's home.

"See, I told you I would win. I caught more fishes than you all! And they're bigger too" Ember said proudly.

Danny and Johnny also caught fish but they were definitely smaller than Ember's. "Well, I will let your boldness slide, little sister. But be certain that I am not afraid to take any challenge, even if you cannot admit that by letting you win, I'm being a really good big brother." Said Johnny trying to minimize his lost.

"And a brother who can only twist the truth instead of speak it, you mean!" pouted Ember.

Danny just laughed at the scene. He loved spending time with them, but sometimes being with them made him wish for a little brother or sister. He even asked this to his father, but Vlad had told him he couldn't have a little brother or sister because his mother was in heaven now.

The boy shook away his negative thoughts and tried to enjoy the best he could this day with his friends. Because they had caught lots of fish, their lunch was quite good.

After their meal, Skulker tried to teach the kids some primary hunting techniques. Vlad watched amused as his son listened with attention at his best friends explanations. Skulker even taught them how to make simple traps to catch bunnies and he spread some of them through the forest to see if he could catch something.

The kids used the remaining of the daytime to play in the forest. The adults could hear the laughs of joy and they were quite satisfied seeing their kids' happiness. Vlad and Skulker mostly relaxed and talked about the news they had to share. Vlad ended up telling Skulker about Eric's warning.

The hunter frowned hearing that and he agreed with Fright Knight in something: Vlad needed to make his son lay low when the ghost king declares war. They couldn't risk king Pariah to discover about Danny's condition. He would certainly be killed.

The black-haired ghost sighed. He knew that. He would give his life to protect his son, but he also didn't want to trap the boy in his home just because of his condition. It wouldn't be fair with the hybrid.

Vlad then suggested to leave this subject for another time when he spotted their kids returning to the campsite. It was getting dark and Skulker went to check his traps if he caught something. As expected the hunter caught some rabbits that wandered in the forest and he prepared a small feast for dinner.

After the dinner, Vlad was teaching the kids about constellations and their meanings. Danny listened to his father with attention. He always found the sky to be quite fascinating. He wondered about its mysteries and if he could solve it one day. But, for now, he was satisfied at looking at the sky full of stars.

Danny then noticed some fireflies floating heading to the direction were the 'gear-like' medallion was being kept, but only Alphonse knew the exact location of it. The young hybrid always wondered what were those little balls of energy. He had seen some of the maids placing them inside of glass tubes and using them as illumination for the nights.

Johnny and Ember were quite surprised to see fireflies floating so close of them, But Vlad and Skulker were already used to it. The adults chuckled seeing their kids watching in awe at something so common.

Danny found them to be very pretty. The boy flew a little in the air and grabbed one of them. He didn't feel the numbness that came before the pleasant warmth. The boy felt, instead uncomfortably hot and the firefly started to shine brighter making the three other ghosts to look at the halfa quite surprised.

Vlad, didn't like this. He had never seen a firefly react this way. As He approached his son, he said: "Daniel, let it go now!"

But the boy couldn't let go of the firefly no matter how hard he tried. The firefly shone so brightly that it seemed like a small Sun. All ghosts closed their eyes to protect themselves from it and when they reopened their eyes. Danny was on the ground in his human form.

"Danny!" Vald rushed to his son grabbing him with his arms. "Please open you eyes, son!"

The halfa slowly opened his eyes and looked to his father: "Daddy? What…"

"_You're at your home."_

"_You're safe."_

"_Continue to live here."_

Danny blinked a few times after hearing that strange voice. He didn't see his father's mouth moving and he was certain that the voice didn't belong to Skulker or Johnny. He looked at his father a bit scared and asked: "Did you hear that, daddy?"

"Hear what, my boy? Are your ears ringing again like they do when you turn human? More importantly why did you turn human?" The parent asked with his eyebrows creasing in worry. Not that he expect his son to know the reason why he just transformed into his human half.

"_You're safe here."_

"_Don't be afraid."_

"_The forest is your home. Forever."_

Danny was starting to get scared. Those voices were like a whisper and he was starting to want the old ringing back. It was less frightening to hear than having someone say these strange things to him.

The boy focused as hard as he could and he finally managed to turn ghost again. "Daddy, didn't you hear? Someone was just talking. He was saying weird things like 'this forest is your home'. What did he him mean?"

Johnny was the first to speak truly confused: "Are you sure you heard something? I hear nothing. Did you hear something Ember?"

The girl just shook her head concerned about her friend. She knew that everytime he turned human, his ears hurt a lot, but that was the first time he was hearing things in his human self.

The ones who were more frightened were Skulker and Vlad. They also knew about Daniel's condition in his human self and Vlad had to make sure of something: "Son, did your ears ring like always?"

But the boy shook his head really frightened. He was confused and he didn't know what was going on.

"I think we should cancel this trip…" Skulker said with a frown. The hunter didn't know much about the biology of a half ghost half human being, but he knew for sure that hearing voices were never a good sign.

"I agree…We'll go back tomorrow morning." Vlad said.

The kids protested, because they didn't want to leave so soon. But Vlad was too worried about his son to focus on the camping trip anymore. Danny apologized to his friends for ruining the mood, but they didn't blame him for that.

Vlad took his son to his tent, but he couldn't sleep. Danny at first didn't want to, but the tiredness of the day soon caught him and he fell asleep. Vlad didn't know what had happened. He didn't know why the firefly reacted like that with his son. And not knowing that was what scared him the most.

* * *

A month passed by since that incident. Vlad couldn't predict anymore if his son would turn human, especially when he had turned into one accidentally not too long ago.

Vladimir told his parents what had happened and the three of them watched the small boy like hawks. Danny, of course noticed that, after all they all kept asking questions about how he was feeling and if he was still hearing 'that voice'.

The hybrid didn't hear 'that voice' since he turned back to his ghost self. His family was really concerned with him, but he didn't like to be asked if he was okay every five minutes.

Count Vlad also kept watching his son's lessons. The parent had to admit he was really worried about his son's safety near that lycanthrope, after all he never gave an answer to what he thought about the humans.

The parent also feared to even bring the subject up again. It would raise too much suspicions. At least he was glad that Alphonse seemed to get more friendly with both him and his son. Yet he still felt uncomfortable in leaving his son all by himself with that werewolf.

However, one day, one ghost he was doing business with arrived too early and at the same time Danny was having his classes. The parent bit his lower lip and told the maid to tell the ghost to come back later, but the guest refused to leave until he talked personally with Vlad.

The man sighed and told his son he would be back soon. Then he left. He thought about leaving a maid to watch over his son, but if he did that, he feared that the werewolf would start to question him about his overprotective behavior towards his son and even ask him if he didn't trust him enough to teach alone.

Vlad decided to end that matter as fast as possible and return to watch over his son.

When Alphonse and Danny were by themselves, Danny gave a tired sigh. He didn't mind spending time with his father, but it started to feel weird the way he was acting towards him.

Alphonse noticed little difference in Vlad's behavior. He rarely gave them five minutes alone anyway. He was dying with curiosity to know more about that 'weird-looking' woman. He knew that no one from the staff would answer him and he figured it out that they must have been acting under the instructions of the Plasmius. But right next to him there was an innocent kid that could be persuaded more easily.

"So, kid, do you know who is that lovely woman with red hair that was in a painting in the hallway?" Alphonse asked suddenly.

"Yes!" The boy answered without thinking. But as soon as he noticed what he had just said he stopped writing. He remembered how his father taught him to not tell any stranger about his half human status.

"Could you tell me who she was?" Alphonse said lowering his book and giving the boy a firm glare.

Danny didn't reply and he just looked away from the werewolf's firm stare. That whole situation was making him really nervous and he wondered where his father was.

Noticing the kid's nervousness, Alphonse asked: "Does Wulf know who she is?"

"Yes…" the boy answered. He didn't know if he shouldn't tell him this or not, but it was too late to take back his words now.

"So, is this some kind of secret that you can't tell to strangers?" Alphonse asked shooting in the dark hoping to hit something and for his surprise, it did.

The boy looked at his with widen eyes and said: "How do you know?"

Alphonse did his best not to smirk. He remained with a neutral expression. "It's quite obvious to tell the truth. But what I don't know is why am I not allowed to know? Am I a stranger to you?" The werewolf wanted to get to the deep of that family mystery.

"No…" the boy answered starting to fidget.

Alphonse then asked again: "May I know what kind of bad thing is going to happen if anyone know about this?"

Danny looked surprised at his words as he finally said: "My daddy said that if I tell this to a stranger, this stranger might hurt me…"

The lycanthrope blinked a few times after hearing the boy. '_What could possible make someone want to hurt a five-year-old child?' _but he quickly shoved away the thought as he improvised: "You're a good boy. You should obey your daddy and don't tell any stranger about this subject. When your father doesn't recognizes me as a stranger anymore, you can tell me. I would never hurt you. Now I think we should go back to our class. You have a few more questions to finish."

But Danny was taken aback by his words and he looked back at his sheet of paper not knowing what to say. That werewolf was quite nice to him. Not as much as Wulf was, but Danny couldn't help but to start to like him. For the boy, the lycanthrope only acted weirdly in the beginning because they were 'strangers' to each other, however he was having classes with him for over a month now. The boy didn't know how much time a person 'stopped being a stranger'. His father never told him that.

In fact, Vlad saw no need to tell Danny to ever talk about his half human status to Alphonse. The parent thought that the lycanthrope seemed to have forgotten all about his wife's painting, besides the parent thought Danny would never tell, after all Vlad constantly reminded him to never talk about this to **strangers**. For Vlad, the werewolf still fitted in this definition, but the boy was having seconds thoughts on that.

Alphonse could see the boy's hesitant look and he used all his willpower not to grin in satisfaction. He maintained a calm face and told Danny: "You should focus on your math problems, Daniel. I already told you that it's fine. You don't have to tell me, if your father still think I'm just an outsider." In case he couldn't make the boy tell him, the werewolf wondered if he could make Wulf talk to him about it.

The silence continued and Danny didn't like that situation. He didn't want to disobey his father, but he wondered if Alphonse was still a stranger. He wanted to tell him, after all his father told him there was nothing wrong in being half human, yet the boy failed to understand why his father told him that not everyone might like knowing that.

His father also always told the boy to be truthful and that he shouldn't lie. Only bad people lie. That's what Count Vladimir said to his son. The boy had conflicting emotions. But then he decided something. He personally didn't feel uncomfortable anymore with the werewolf near him. He didn't want to lie and become a bad person and he didn't want to feel ashamed for being half human.

The boy took a deep breath and looked straight into Alphonse's eyes. "That person is my mommy. She is, I mean, was…human…"

Alphonse's eyes went wide with this new information. '_How could I haven't notice this before? No wonder so much secrecy._'

The lycanthrope wanted to press further into the matter, but he didn't want the child to panic and tell his father that he had just revealed his big secret: "I'm…honored. I'm really glad that you trusted me enough to tell me this secret. You really look like her."

Alphonse also figured it out that, when the boy corrected himself, his mother was dead. He also didn't want to make him cry when his father could arrive at any moment.

Danny couldn't help but to smile after hearing that man. He was glad that he had didn't mind his half human status and started to wonder even more why his father wanted him to keep it a secret.

"Are you going to tell you father that you told me about your secret? I don't know how he would react knowing that I know about your secret. I don't think he would be mad with you, but maybe he wouldn't like having someone who knows about your secret staying so near of you."

Danny looked at him confused. "But everyone here knows about it. I don't think daddy would be mad, would he?"

With his last statement, Alphonse confirmed that everyone in that mansion knew about it and seemed to be okay with it. Then he said: "How about if we keep this little thing from your father and we can tell him together that I know about your secret and that I don't mind it when he's ready?"

Danny smiled liking the werewolf's plan. What he didn't know was that the lycanthrope had an idea, which made him smile widely, but he was soon interrupted when Vlad arrived. The man looked at the teacher and his son and asked: "Did something happen while I was out?"

Alphonse just turned to him and said: "No. Everything is just fine."

End of chapter 7

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update.


	8. Schemes

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott, writer-from-hell and aryaneragon4ever for your reviews.

* * *

Five months later, inside of the royal chambers of the ghost king's castle, Pariah Dark was looking out of the window furious with the audacity of the humans. He had discovered, that every nearby kingdom had started to have not only the walls, but every house covered with Bloody Blossoms. A plant notorious for its horrible side effects against ghosts.

Because of that, King Pariah had to call back his troops. Fortunately, they were all invisible to make a surprise attack and also were far enough to not lose control of their powers due the red flowers.

"Where did they even get those cursed weeds?" The male ghost growled growled.

He wasn't alone in the room. His wife, Spectra, was there as well. She found quite amusing that her husband was loosing his temper because the human managed to outsmart him. She was also quite surprised to know that the humans had acquired such a large amount of Bloody Blossoms.

"Don't worry about it, my dear. I'm sure you can think of something." She said with a wicked smile. She knew how to tick her husband off. Pariah hated being pitied.

"Yeah, right! If we had come closers, our clover would have been blown! To make things worse the wind carries their damned smell everywhere. We can't get near of any human kingdom with those things. I thought those things were extinct!" snarled Pariah still looking at the window.

Spectra was enjoying seeing her husband so angry. His misery was so strong that she could absorb some of it without him noticing, but she also knew when to stop, because if she kept doing it, he would soon notice. "Have you thought about burning down the flowers?" she suggested. After all, she wanted to have some humans to feed from misery without restraints.

The ghost king turned to his wife and growled: "Don't you think I haven't thought of that? But how an we get close to it? No ghost that can use fire can get near enough to set it on fire and we can't risk the humans know about our plans or they might attack and if they discover that we're af…wary of these flowers their egos are just going to get bigger."

Spectra did her best to not snicker when her husband almost admitted what he truly felt towards the Blood Blossoms. But after mulling his words for a while and then smiled again: "You know, my dear, this can be a quite good idea in the end."

Pariah raised an annoyed eyebrow and asked: "How so?"

"Well, sometimes a bigger ego means an equally big pride. Why don't you try lure them to a trap. They don't know we know about the Bloody Blossoms. We can lure them to a trap in our own home."

The ghost king scoffed and said: "Easier said than done. They could bring those cursed flowers along with them. Besides, don't forget about that weird green metal they now have." But then he frowned deeply and continued: "But why am I even discussing war plans with you?"

Spectra shrugged lightly and replied: "I'm just trying to help, dear. But you're right. This is a matter to be discussed with your general and war advisors."

Pariah Dark glared at his wife, but said nothing. It was still early in the morning and the ghost king already decided this was going to be a tiring one. He had several meetings with his war advisors and his general, Fright Knight, before he organized his first attack towards the humans. So, he wasn't in mood to have another one. He had no idea of what to do and he refused to let his wife to call the shots (is that the right expression?) in his place.

It was frustrating for him to not have any ideas. He turned his back to his wife and went back to stare through the window. Despite of his frustration, he had to admit his wife's idea of setting a trap was becoming quite appealing, even though he didn't want to admit it.

Even Spectra was getting tired of the silence. "My dear, may I leave for a while? I would like to have a stroll on our garden."

Pariah looked over his should and said: "Yes, you may leave."

Spectra got up from the bed and bowed respectfully before she left. When she was out of the royal chambers and gave a heavy sigh. It was tiring for her to put up with her husband when he was moody. If she wasn't careful, he would have her beheaded for merely giving a suggestion.

True, it was fun to tease him and grab some misery every now and then when the king was too distracted and being the queen gave her many privileges. But sometimes she just wanted to make him shut up.

She decided to do something else while her husband was gloomy. She was walking through the castle to call some of the royal maids to make her some company, after all she couldn't afford being all alone when her husband was with his paranoid mode switched on. Then she spotted a familiar face. It was a short man with grayish hair and moustache known as Bertrand. He worked there doing many jobs for the ghost king.

He was shape shifter and was practically a jack-of-all-trades. He could be seen doing gardening work and also getting rid of the king's enemies, depending of his orders.

Spectra smirked when she saw him. She knew that the shape-shifter had some attraction for her. She often saw him looking at her as if she were a forbidden fruit he longed for. This only make things easier for her to manipulate him and she sure could use a man of his talents.

When Bertrand saw the ghost queen he blushed a little. He bowed down and said: "Good day, my queen."

Spectra smiled and replied: "Good day, Bertrand. Are you here to meet my husband?" she asked trying to be as polite as possible even though she thought that he was there more like to see her.

The little man raised his glare to look in her eyes and he said: "I'm here because…I needed to go through to the other side of the castle." He didn't want to admit that his sole purpose of being there was just to catch a glimpse of her majesty.

Spectra smirked at his words because know she was sure of his intentions. "My, you picked up the longest way to do so."

Bertrand blushed furiously for Spectra's amusement. The ghost queen chuckled darkly and said: "Don't worry about it. See you some other time, Bertrand." Then she left.

Spectra didn't need to look behind to know that the shape-shifter was staring at her quite baffled by her words. He expected to be punished by her. But the ghost queen had other plans for him. '_If I can keep him near, but not enough to my husband be suspicious of me, I can use that love struck shape-shifter to aid king Pariah to give me some delicious humans.'_ She thought maliciously as she left.

* * *

King Raymond was again with another meeting with kings Thurston and William. They had plenty of these meeting in the past months especially concerning the spread of the Bloody Blossoms through their kingdoms.

King Raymond didn't like how his home looked like. He had never liked flowers and found them to be too 'girly' for his kingdom, but if those things could keep ghosts away from Amikeco Parko, then, so be it.

This time it was king William who summoned the other two. "I'm glad you two could come. I would like to ask you to know if we're going to take any offensive behavior in this 'war' against ghosts."

The other two men looked at him a little taken aback, but the King William Baxter, seeing their reactions, continued: "I mean, All we've done so far is to strengthen our defenses with ectorranium armor and weapons and also with Bloody Blossoms. But are we going to attack? We know that the weapons and armor do work, but what about the flowers? We also don't know if it's really true that all ghosts live in the Dead Forest, we can end up wasting resources and time doing that."

King Manson nodded as he replied: "You're right…I didn't think of that. What if we attack first and lose? The ghosts would retaliate on the spot!"

King Irongrip scoffed and said: "Wasn't you who said that the flowers did work? I say we attack them first while we still have the element of surprise at our side. If the two of you are too scared of doing it, I'll attack them myself!"

"But what if you lose? Even if the flowers do work, do you think they'll handle a massive attack from the ghost army?" Willian asked. Then, before the older man could answer, Willian turned to Thurston and asked: "How are the bloody blossom pills doing? Did Duke Jack finish them?"

King Raymond didn't like one bit his son-in-law's attitude. For him, William was only interested in the safety of Amikeco Parko because he wanted to inherit it someday and not because he was concerned about him.

Unaware of what was going through between the other two man, king Manson replied: "They're almost ready. Duke Jack told me that all he need is to come a across a few things in their making and they'll be ready."

"I see…" mused king William for a while. Then he continued: "How about if we first make our kingdom completely anti-ghosts before we even decide to strike? If turn our kingdom into huge fortresses we'll have nothing to fear."

The older man in the room didn't like to take defensive maneuvers. He would rather burn the entire forest with the ghosts inside of it, but he had to admit that there was the possibility of a powerful retaliation if he wasn't careful.

* * *

Then, reluctantly, king Raymond agreed in strengthen Amikeko Parko some more and wait until the other two kingdoms were ready as well to start the war.

For some reason Danny's transformations into human had become quite irregular after he touched that firefly. This only increased the everyone's worry. Danny had to stay within the Plasmius' abode for as much as possible until it stabilized again. Danny didn't like it, but he at least stopped hearing that annoying ringing and that weird voice from before was gone too while he at his human self.

Another thing that happened during this time was that Danny has become quite comfortable near Alphonse in the last few months. This didn't go unnoticed by Vlad who had to wonder why his son and Alphonse suddenly became good friends.

It wasn't like the parent thought it was a bad thing. He was just awed that his son got so comfortable near that other werewolf when himself couldn't relax completely while he shared the same room with him.

One day, after Danny's classes were over, Danny was quite content when Alphonse asked him to go to his room while he wanted to talk with Vlad alone. The parent raised an eyebrow at that and conceded it.

When the werewolf and Vlad were by themselves he told the count: "There's something I need to talk about when the boy goes to the Lycan School. You're aware that it's a boarding school, right?" Alphonse said.

Vlad was aware of that. In fact he hoped that Wulf could pull some strings and bend the rules for the boy so Danny wouldn't have to live at the Werewolf Village while he was studying there.

But his thoughts were interrupted when Alphonse continued: "I've finally managed to have my own house even though it's custom for a family to live under the same roof. Let's just say I needed some space away from my dad and also the boy could live there with me, because I would be his responsible guardian for the time he would be there. This way he wouldn't have to live in the dorms. After all, we can't afford his secret to leak especially now that king Pariah wants to hang all humans."

Vlad's eyes went wide in shock and he even gave a step back at the silver werewolf's words: "How did you…"

Alphonse wanted to grin widely, but he had to play the cool and caring person if he wanted to have Vlad's trust. "Listen, it wasn't hard to figure it out that your son was half human. I talked to him and I don't mind he's the way he is and I know that for a few months now. I know what you're thinking. Please don't get mad, but I kinda asked the boy about a picture of a human female I've seen a few months ago in this abode and one thing led to another and he told me about his mother. The reason why I took so long to tell you that I know about your son's secret is that I wanted you to feel more comfortable with me. I also want you to know that I have your child's best interest in my heart."

The lycanthrope knew that this conversation was inevitable. He decided that be straight forward with the man was the best solution. He couldn't make the boy lie to his own father, so he decided to act in a way Vlad would probably like.

The blue-skinned ghost didn't know if was more furious with his son for telling his secret like that or with himself for hanging Maddie's painting in a place so visible for strangers. He took a deep breath to try calm down, but it did little to help. "Are you…really okay with that?" he asked unsure. Vlad would rip apart any ghost who dared to hurt his son. He truly hoped that the werewolf in front of him was telling the truth.

Alphonse kept his cool as he replied: "Yes, I am. I see no problem about his half-human status. It's very interesting, in fact. I never thought a human and a ghost could generate children." Also noticing how uneasy the parent was, he continued: "You don't have to go into details about what happened to her. Your son told me she passed away because of a disease. You really miss her, don't you? I'm sorry for your loss."

Vlad couldn't help, but to smile weakly: "Thank you. I do miss her." But then he looked seriously at Alphonse and said: "You must understand that this must be kept as a secret. You have to promise me that you won't tell **anyone** about this. Am I clear?"

Alphonse did his best to not roll his eyes at the comment. "Of course I won't tell anyone. I know the consequences of it. I don't want anything bad to happen to the boy. That's why I'm suggesting for him to stay with me. A child is allowed to stay with a credited teacher while he attends to the Lycan School."

Vlad frowned as he tried to persuade the ghost: "I don't think this will be necessary. I intend to talk with Wulf so Daniel can stay home with me and go there everyday or even help me to buy a house at the Werewolf Village so he can stay with me."

The lycanthrope raised an amused eyebrow at that and replied: "Do you really want to do this? I mean, not even the king's children get so much attention. Granted, all king's children have their own separate special room at the dorm, but they still needed to live there. Do you think Wulf can make you an exception when the king himself doesn't have such privilege? Do you really want to draw so much attention for yourself and for the boy? I'm just trying to help here. I'm aware of the boy's sudden human transformations. He once turned into human while you were out of the room when you father called you to help him with a deal or something two months ago, but he quickly got back to his half ghost form. Maybe I can help him out somehow. I know a lot about ghost's energies and how they work. Maybe I can come up with something to stabilize your son." But he added in his mind _'After all, if he can't control his human half, he'll be useless for me.'_

Vlad frowned when he had just heard that. But he couldn't deny the truth in his words, if he really made Wulf manage to make some kind of exception for his son, people would start asking questions. That was something he needed to avoid at all costs.

He then remembered what he once talked with the werewolf and he mused out loud: "Oh yes, right. Because you father is an authority at this, isn't he. Do you think we can tell him about my son? He must have a vast knowledge about this."

Alphonse visible cringed, but fortunately, the other ghost didn't notice it. "My father is a…ally of king Pariah Dark. I don't share of the same vision as he. I think that, for the safety of your son, this should be kept between us. We can decide what to do later. After all there is still five years until Daniel can apply to the Lycan School. By the way, don't get angry with the boy. He's just five years old, he doesn't know the danger he's really in."

Vlad silently nodded.

End of chapter 8

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. Please review. I love to hear your comments.


	9. Firefly Therapy

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott and writer-from hell for your reviews. I reeally appreciate them.

* * *

Five years passed by at a blink of an eye. Pariah Dark's anxiousness only increased through the years as his scouts discovered that the nearby human kingdoms were fortifying themselves with more anti-ghost weapons, Bloody Blossoms and now even the walls of each kingdom were ghost-proof. But this last one didn't concerned Pariah that much, because all ghosts knew how to fly.

It was the humans boldness that infuriated the ghost king. But he didn't just stood and watch. He made their soldiers go through an intensive training for the upcoming battle.

Not only that, but he also researched and asked Wolfgang, Alphonse's father, about substances toxic to humans. That lycanthrope had gained the king's trust after stealing his son's work and presenting it as his own. But the older lycanthrope started to have some difficulty to keep up with the king's demands without the indirect help of his son, especially after Alphonse moved out of the house.

The lycanthrope had a very hard time researching by himself. He even tried to persuade a talk about this subject with his son, hoping that he would end up giving him the answers he needed on a silver plate, but Alphonse knew better. He just pretended to not know what his father wanted to know and it was obvious for the parent that his son was lying and this only infuriated him more.

But he had managed to get some answers himself after several sleepless nights, after all he had a 'reputation' to live up to. He couldn't afford to lose the king's favor. He explained the king about several substances toxic to mankind.

The king was very pleased with this and he rewarded him with his weight in gold. But before the lycanthrope could leave, Pariah Dark asked him: "Do you know any effective way of killing several of these human bastards at once with any of these substances?"

The lycanthrope stopped on his tracks, then gave it some thought and replied: "If you want to, my king, I can research the best way to kill several roaches at the same time."

The ghost king grinned darkly and replied: "This would please me."

* * *

During these years, many things happened to Vlad and his son. Surprisingly, the little halfa managed to complete control his human half. He could now switch back to his human half at will and by doing it for a short time every once in a while, he never had another unwilling transformation into human.

Vlad was extremely thankful to Alphonse for that. It was the werewolf's idea that made possible for his son to control his transformations. Vlad was fascinated how he was able to help his son.

* * *

_One day, at night, after Danny's classes were over. Alphonse, Vlad, James, Christine and Daniel were at the boy's room. It was the lycanthrope's own suggestion that the grandparents were there as well. The werewolf wanted to make sure he felt safe and comfortable. Besides this would earn some 'trust points' with the Plasmius family._

_ He had brought with himself a couple of fireflies trapped in a glass jar. Vlad had told what had happened in that camping trip and the werewolf thought a lot about it. He then came up with an idea and he hoped it would work._

_ Alphonse opened the jar and picked up one firefly. He ignored the feeling in his hand and he explained to the others: "The fireflies have special qualities. When we, ghosts, touch them, we feel a numbness first then a pleasant feeling." After saying that he remembered how good it feels everytime he crosse__d__ that ring made of fireflies. _

_ "We already know that. But why does it have to do with anything?" James asked raising an eyebrow._

_ Alphonse smirked as he replied: "As far as I've been told, when the boy touched that firefly years ago, he turned human and he felt no numbness. I've come across a theory about how it worked with half humans like your son." _

_ Vlad didn't tell the werewolf about that voice his son had heard and after a stern talk with Danny, the boy was forbidden to tell about it and also about his human half to anyone without Vlad's consent first._

_ Without further notice, Alphonse handed the firefly to the boy who looked unsure at it. He looked to his father who gave him an approval nodding and, hesitantly, he picked up the glowing sphere from Alphonse's hand._

_ It didn't take long until the boy whined and he was forced back to his human half. He was about to let go of the firefly, but Alphonse gently prevented him from doing so by pressing the boy's hands against the firefly. "Don't let go." He told him._

_ The boy then started to feel really hot and he even started to sweat a little. This didn't go unnoticed by Vlad who said: "Okay, I think this is enough." And approached to free his son, when a green aura covered Danny's entire body._

_ Danny blinked a few times and all unpleasant feelings were gone. He snapped back to reality when Alphonse asked him: "How are you feeling?"_

_ "I'm fine now…I don't know why, but this firefly is making me feel good now." He answered truthfully. But for some reason he didn't hear the voice again. Not that he complained about it._

_ The Plasmius sighed in relief and Christine asked concerned: "But why did this happen with Danny? This reaction is not normal."_

_ The lycanthrope then told her: "You're right. This type of reaction is not normal for __**ghosts**__. Daniel here is half ghost. When a human touched a firefly, it seems like it's on fire for them. I gave a lot of thought of what you told me and I've come to a conclusion. For us, full-fledged ghosts, when we touch it, we feel a light numbness and then a pleasant feeling. For the boy, it's different. He first feels hot which forces his body to turn him to his human half then the firefly gives him energy. When he released the firefly, that day, before it could give him some of its spectral energy, he, how can I put this, made his flow of energy go wild and unstable. What you're seeing now is the effect of the long exposition to a firefly. In another words, it's fixing his body. Undoing the damage that the other firefly had done to him." _

_Even though what he had just explained was still just a theory, the lycanthrope was quite sure of what he was saying. The ghostly aura over the boy even in while he was at his human half proved it._

_ When the glow over Danny finally died down, Alphonse picked up the firefly from the boy, placed back inside of the jar and told him with a smile: "Now turn ghost."_

_ The boy was a little confused at first but he did as he was told. He closed his eyes and tried successfully to turn into his ghost half._

_ "So, it's all over now?" James asked unsure._

_ "Not yet." Alphonse replied him and then returned his look to the boy as he said for everyone's surprise: "Try to turn human now." _

_ "What? Why do you want him to do such a thing? Isn't his instability over?" Vlad said getting confused at the werewolf's suggestion. _

_ Alphonse __sighed before he explained: "The reason why your son needs to turn human periodically is still a mystery to me, but, if my theory is correct, the reason why he needs to do it is because his human blood stays so much time suppressed it needs to emerge to prevent a any health problem, after all he has two different types of blood in his body. If he suppress one for too long the other might suffer a side effect. If Daniel manages to complete control both his human and his ghost halves , if I'm correct, there'll be no more forced transformations and, therefore, his secret will be safe."_

_ Danny looked at the adults unsure and he didn't understand very well about why his body needed to turn human, but he tried anyway. He recalled in his mind how it felt while he was human and for his own surprise he did it. The two rings appeared once again and turned him human. After he did it, he tried to go back immediately to his ghost half and it also worked. It seemed like everytime he switched to one of his halves, the process got easier every time. He didn't like to transform that much because always made him feel weird. That wasn't the first time he turned human at will before. Once, when he was all alone, he tried to transform and he did it with success, but because of the ringing in his ears he quickly turned back to his ghost half and never tried it again until now. _

_Another thing that the boy noticed was that __the ringing in his ears never happened again, but that creepy voice saying stuff like "this is your home" only appeared when he turned human when he was outside of his home. He didn't understand that and he wanted to ask Alphonse about it, after all, the werewolf seemed to know a lot. But his father forbid him to say anything on this matter to anyone, including Alphonse. He feared that the werewolf might think that his son was crazy._

_ Vlad, James and Christine were astonished seeing the boy change back and forth like that. "If you turn human, let's say, once a week, or even better, once a day, I highly doubt you'll have another unwilling change to your human half ever again. _

_ Daniel nodded. It was quite relieving for the boy to know that his body would stop acting so weird. However The blue-skinned adults doubted that Alphonse's method was the correct one. But they decided to give it a try anyway.

* * *

_

Vlad thanked the heavens for listening to the lycanthrope. His son seemed much more energetic and his worry about his son being accidentally seem seen as human was almost completely gone from his mind. His sole preoccupation was that his son was going to live with Alphonse for five days a week now.

Danny, as expected, passed on the entrance exam of the Lycan School with an A. Ember had also passed on the exam with an A and Johnny also passed on his first try too, but with the lowest grade they admitted someone to get into the school.

Classes wouldn't be starting for another week yet and already Vlad knew how much he would be missing his son. He was aware that he could pick his son on the Fridays, after classes and return him on Sunday night, tops. But that wasn't enough for him.

It was late at night and Vlad was in his room without wanting to rest. It seemed it was just yesterday he had to give his own life energy to his son in order for him to live. But this memory also triggered another one that saddened him even more: The death of his wife.

Truly, he still loved her with all his strength and he didn't even consider marrying once more. He closed his eyes as he remembered all the good time both shared. He clung to those memories to move on. He knew that she was looking out for him and Danny and that she would be sad to see him moping around. He was sure that she was proud of having such a good boy as Daniel.

When he closed his eyes to dive into the good memories, he heard someone knocking on his door and he went to open it up wondering who it could be at that hour of the night.

When he opened it, he saw his father standing there. "Father, what are you doing up at this hour?"

The older man smiled and replied: "I came here to talk, son. I figured you would be worried about Danny leaving to the werewolf village next week."

Vlad sighed and moved from the door allowing his father to enter into his room. The man gently placed his hand over his son's should and said: "They all have to grow up someday, son. Your mother and I felt the same way when you and Eric had to go too. It's only natural. Daniel will be staying in a safe place and, besides, it's not like you aren't going to see him anymore. He's still going to spend the weekends here."

Vlad closed his eyes and shook his head: "I don't know, father. Something tells me not to let Danny go. You don't know how many times I considered into canceling his enrollment at the Lycan School."

James raised an eyebrow at that. "Why? Your son worked really hard to get accepted into it." But then after a few seconds of silence, the older man continued warily: "Is there anything you aren't telling?"

Vlad shook his head. "I don't know…That's what scares me the most."

James looked at his son for a while unsure of what to say. "Well, maybe it's just because you never got separated of your son before in all his life, but he needs to learn some independence. It did wonders for you and Eric. This will only make your son a better person. You know what they say. 'Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.' It's that simple, son."

Vlad sighed. He knew his father was right, but this didn't sooth his anxiety. "Maybe, I'm just overreacting. Just a little. I guess this whole war against humans is what I'm truly worried about."

James nodded before he replied: "As I said before, Daniel will go to a safe place. His teacher's home. He knows the secret and he has been helping Danny a lot. He'll also help to keep his other half hidden from everyone else. Nobody will discover his half human condition. Relax, son."

Vlad looked a little sad at his father as he said: "I'll try father. I'll try…"

Meanwhile, Danny was also unable to sleep. Like his father, he was also worried with the new life he was going to have from now on. He was going to attend the Lycan School for eight years and was only going to be able to visit his family on the weekends and vacations.

He had to admit he was happy because Ember and Johnny were going to attend the same school as him. Alphonse also told him that the school was going to be very interesting and that he was going to broaden his horizons.

Danny was going to meet several other children of his age and he had to admit he was looking forward it. The only kids he ever interacted with were Ember and Johnny and he wanted to make more friends.

Vlad said that people might take this the wrong way and think he had some…problems. Danny didn't understand what his father meant by that, but he obeyed.

The boy yawned and closed his eyes as he still wondered what awaited for him at the werewolf village. It didn't take too long until the boy drifted to a land of sweet dreams.

* * *

Elsewhere, in a room full of several gears and 'clocks', which couldn't be found anywhere at that time. A purple cloaked ghost with red eyes, a scar over his left eye and with blue skin observed everything that happened both in the Dead Forest and the human kingdoms on a mirror-like device which showed him any place of the world.

The adult ghost then turned into an elderly form of himself and he shook his head as he thought: '_Why do people keep letting petty misunderstandings to create war among each other? This hate is irrational. Ghosts and humans both have feelings. They bleed if they're cut, they laugh when happy, they cry when sad, they have families, friends. They're all the same…'_

Then after changing into a child form of himself and pressed a button on the top of the staff he held making the mirror-like device in front of him change the image to Alphonse from several years ago in front of the Cave of Beginning.

_'If he knew the consequences of his actions, he wouldn't be so foolish to try what he's about to. Curiosity can bring made wonders and fantastic discoveries, but other things should be left alone.'

* * *

_

End of chapter 9

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. Please review. I love to read your comments.


	10. New life

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott, aryaneragon4ever and DaughterofPoseidon32498 for your reviews.

5)Thanks for the 1.000 hits!

* * *

On the day before the classes were to begin, Danny had already to move to Alphonse's new home. He had to do it because he didn't want to get up very early on the next day to not get late for his first day of classes.

His father almost begged Alphonse to let him stay at least for the first week to help Danny to adapt to his new routine. The lycanthrope was very displeased with this situation, but he let Vlad to stay over for the boy's first week.

It wasn't a big surprise for anyone when Eric protested against it. He told Vlad to stop being so overprotective and that Danny wasn't supposed to become a spoiled child. He also told his brother that the boy was safe with Alphonse.

Fright Knight was told everything about how Alphonse helped the boy to control his human half. Because of that, Pariah's general was very thankful to the lycanthrope.

However, James and Christine ended up telling that Vlad should only be there for a short time, because this would start to draw too much unnecessary attention to the boy. That's why Vlad decided to stay there for just a week.

But no one asked the young hybrid what he thought of this situation at all. The boy wanted to his father to stay with him, but the adults kept telling that this would make him weaker and spoiled and the boy didn't want to become any of that. His heart was torn in two with his mixed feelings. But he never voiced them.

When Danny and Vlad went to Alphonse's new home, they found that it wasn't very big like their home, but it was nice and comfortable. It had three bedrooms, kitchen and even indoor bathrooms. This was something the ghost werewolves were proud to achieve because it made things way easier for them

Besides, the lycanthrope changed his mind as he imagined how Vlad's **temporary** presence would make it easier for the boy to get used to his new home for the next eight years of his life. Alphonse even hired some servants to attend his abode. A chef and a couple of maids to clean the home. However, they wouldn't be sleeping in his abode for safety matters.

Vlad had decided to sleep in the same room as Danny for the time being. He was concerned in leaving his son sleep all by himself in a strange house. Not that Alphonse minded. The werewolf had only to gain with Vlad's actions.

After saying he didn't mind Vlad's actions, he gained, some "trust points" with the parent. Besides, Alphonse wasn't stupid enough to try to take Danny to the Cave of Beginning anytime soon.

Alphonse told the boy that he was going to guide him personally to the school everyday and also take him back home by the end of classes. He also said that if the boy wanted, he could stay with his friends to play with for some time and then he would go home. He also available himself to attend any doubt the boy might have with his homework. Even Vlad had to admit he was pleased to hear that.

Now, both father and son were at Danny's room. Luckily, all beds were big and both could sleep without the need of dragging the bed from the empty bedroom. It was quite late, however both weren't tired.

The hybrid was quite excited to meet many new people and also to see Ember too. Johnny had told him, during the vacations, about some of the teachers. Skulker's son was already fourteen and was halfway done in the school.

Danny remembered how much he complained about Alphonse's exams. He told to both his little sister and Danny how cruel he was with his tests. Danny thought that Johnny complained so much because he didn't study. Danny studied a lot and he didn't find that difficult.

And, of course, the boy shared all this information with his father. Vlad only watched calmly as he saw his son, in his human form, talking about everything Johnny had told about the Lycan School.

The boy really wanted to meet all sorts of new people. The man started to feel a great nostalgia. '_They grow up so fast…'_ Vlad said as he heard calmly his son rant about the number of new friends he was going to make.

The boy talked so much that he was getting tired soon. When the boy yawned, he looked into his father's red eyes and asked: 'Daddy, can you take me to the school tomorrow?"

The man smiled and told his son: "Of course, little badger. Don't forget to tell me everything that has happened in your first day of school, okay, hmm?"

The boy nodded before he gave himself into his tiredness and fell asleep on in his father's arms. Vlad quietly looked at his son. He was very near of him, but he felt like he was very far away because he wouldn't be able to see his son everyday anymore by the end of the week.

On the next day, Danny, who had turned back to his ghost half as soon as he woke up, was quite excited to go to the school, but it soon faded away when Alphonse told them that it would be too weird for the boy to be near his father right on his first day. The parents were only seen at that school when the teachers called them periodically to talk about their children's progress. The school was famous for not only giving teachings about normal subjects, such as math and history, but also to prepare the children to an independent life and have a career on their own.

Both boy and parent tried to insist on the matter, but, this time, Alphonse denied. "You two can't go there together! No other child is going with their parents." But then the werewolf have a deep sigh to calm himself down. He didn't foresee this outcome and he wasn't pleased by it. "Look, I know this might be hard for both of you, but if you two do this, you'll become a walking joke, Daniel. All other kids are going to pick on you. You better not give them a reason to make fun of you, boy." Then he turned to the parent and continued: "You attended to the Lycan School yourself, didn't you? Did your parents tried to take you there by holding your hand?"

Vlad didn't have an answer for that. The werewolf was right about it. When both him and his brother were studying at the Lycan School, they had to sleep in the dorms and their parents only showed up to pick them up at the weekends and vacations and also for the periodical parents-teachers meetings.

Alphonse gave another sigh and tried to sooth the man's worries a little: "I told you, Count Vlad, Daniel is going with me to the school everyday. It's not weird for a student to live with their private teacher and he'll be fine. I'll also accompany him all his way back here, so you don't have to worry about it. You can also spend the day in my personal library, which is in the second floor, at the end of the right side of the hallway, Count Vladimir."

In the end the man ended up agreeing with Alphonse, despite of his feelings about the situation. He kneeled down and gave Danny a hug. "Daddy will be waiting for you. I want to hear everything later, okay?"

The boy nodded and said with a sad tone while he hugged his father back. "Okay, daddy…"

Then, after they broke the hug, Alphonse got out of the house, walking alongside Danny to the school. Vlad sighed after seeing his son leaving through the front door. He missed the boy already.

The man shook his head and tried to focus on something else, after all he had to tell himself that he couldn't hold the hand of his son forever. The boy was growing up fast and he needed to learn how to be strong and independent.

The count then went to the library, following the werewolf's instructions. When he got there, he was quite surprised to see that the room was about twice the size of the library of Vlad's own home! '_Professor Alphonse must really like to read._' The blue-skinned ghost thought.

He then moved near the shelves and glanced over the tons of books displayed there. He wasn't exactly in mood for reading, but it would help him to take his mind off his son.

After a while he saw a book that caught his curiosity because he had never read anything like it before. The title was 'Theories About the Begging of the Ghosts.'

Vlad picked the book up and noticed that there were several other books with similar titles and therefore similar subjects. He raised an eyebrow at that, but he thought it was all just some kind of curiosity the lycanthrope had. And even he was interested to know what those books had to say.

* * *

Meanwhile, Danny was walking with Alphonse and he suddenly remembered something and asked: "Why did I had only to bring my pencils?"

The werewolf calmly replied: "It's because you'll be provided with everything else there. The first day is usually just to greet the new students and give an out-of-date motivational long speech. I already have your schedule. You'll have the same classes everyday at the same time and at the same room. Your classroom is the number 102. I also checked for you and guess what? You're in the same class as your female friend, Ember."

"Really?" Danny said with his eyes beaming in joy. He was glad that he was going to at least share the same classes with his friend.

Alphonse knew that because the rooms were also divided in alphabetical order and he gave a quick look in the name list of the boy's classmates. This ended up being in his favor. Have a gloomy child at his home would be troublesome for him, especially because the boy's parent might try do something drastic like moving into the Werewolf Village just to cheer his son up. And he couldn't afford any of that.

When they got there, Danny immediately spotted Ember, who was talking with Johnny. Ember's brother cringed when he saw Alphonse. The lycanthrope also remembered him. He was the boy that nearly failed his classes.

Truth to be told, Alphonse was a strict teacher and demanded a lot from his students, but he was never unfair or made personal grudges while correcting the exams. He kinda liked teaching and hated when students used excuses such as 'it's too hard' with him. Alphonse liked to teach Danny, because the boy always gave 110% of himself and never complained.

Alphonse allowed the children to chit chat for a while and told them to follow him because he would show them around before the 'welcome students' speech. Alphonse showed that their classroom was at the first floor on the right side of the school. It had a window in the room and it was headed towards a small camp where the children could spend their time playing.

While the young hybrid memorized his way around the school, he saw that the school had not only some normal child ghosts, but also werewolves and also several other species he had never seen before, like some white furred bear-yeti-like beings.

Ember already knew where her classroom was and she also told Danny that she was looking forward spending the day with him.

Alphonse then took the three of them to a large room with several rows of seats, which was getting quite crowded. "Ember, Daniel, you two will sit over there" the werewolf said pointing to a section of chairs on the front-left side of the room "And John, you'll sit there." he said pointing to the middle row of seats in the middle of the room. The lycanthrope never liked calling people by nicknames.

"As John should already know, each class is divided in this auditorium, you three should go to your respective seats. I'm a teacher so I have to stand with the principal. You'll be able to see me from your seats. I'll pick you up, Daniel, as soon as your first day of school is done. If you excuse me now." The werewolf finished going towards to the front along with many other werewolf adults, who were the other teachers.

There was a fairly old brown-furred lycanthrope with the others teachers. His name was Amadeus and he was the current principal of the Lycan School. Alphonse respected him and greeted him appropriately as soon as he got near.

When the auditorium was full, Amadeus started talking, greeting both the new students and the old ones. This was the only thing Alphonse didn't like about the older werewolf. It was his habit of making the **same** long speech year after year. The senior students already knew it by heart and didn't pay much attention. Even some of the teachers were spacing out. Basically, only the first years were paying attention to his words.

Amadeus talked about the future, hopes and dreams and how the education they were going to receive there was greatly going to help them all for the future. The old werewolf also emphasized that women should also be taught equally on the same things as the men.

After two hours of speaking the oldest of the werewolves present continued still with his smile: "Well, I hope this sums up everything. If you have any more doubts you could ask an available teacher. For those who are at the first year, you'll be given tomorrow a list of rules that I hope you all obey." Then his smile turned into an utter serious face: "This school has zero tolerance to people that disobey rules. Disobey once and you'll be severely punished, disobey twice and you'll never set your feet here ever again. I hope I'm **very** clear about that."

Some of the younger kids winced at the tone of Amadeus last words. The old lycanthrope was dead serious about it and some of the seniors have witnessed the wrath of the old lycanthrope when one of their classmates decided to do a prank for another student. He had put a bucket of water over the door so it would fall on the head of a student that he hated, but what he didn't know was that the targeted person had seen the principal of the school and let him enter into the class first. The result was that the werewolf was soaked in the end. Unfortunately, for the prankster, that was his second time doing something against the school rules and he was expelled without mercy.

But the old lycanthrope smiled again hoping that he made himself clear to everyone and said: "Now that we're done with the presentations. Allow me to welcome you all and I hope you all have a productive year. You can now go have fun with your friends and relax for today. Starting tomorrow I hope you all can give me 110% of yourselves during classes. You're all dismissed."

Danny was a little unsure of what he had to do now. He thought that Alphonse was going to pick him up or something like that, but then Ember grabbed him by his hand and told him: "Come on! I have a place to show you. It's very nice and we can go play there.

The hybrid looked unsure at his werewolf teacher. The boy really wanted to go play with Ember, but this entire territory was new to him and he didn't want to do anything bad, especially after what Amadeus had said.

Alphonse had seen Danny looking into his direction and sighed. He smiled and gave a nod, allowing the boy to go have fun with Ember. He could understand why the boy was so unsure and honestly, he had no problem in going to hang out for a while. He would pick him up later after he was done with the meeting between the teachers and the principal.

They had to give another list of the students who weren't sleeping at the dorms, because the one Amadeus had vanished from his office. The old werewolf assumed he had discarded it with the trash by accident.

A few hours later, still before lunchtime, the silver lycanthrope searched for the boy in the fields where the children usually played at. For his surprise, he saw Danny playing with some other children. He thought that the boy would take some more time to make friends with other kids. Among them there was some young werewolves, some of the yetis of Far Frozen and even Winterflower, who was the daughter of the Far Frozen village leader, Frostbite.

He approached the boy and told him: "I'm really sorry for interrupting your fun, but it's time we go home, Daniel."

"Already?" the hybrid said disappointed.

"You can come to play with them some more tomorrow." The lycanthrope replied.

"Okay…"the boy said. Then he turned to Ember and his new friends and said with a smile: "Bye. I hope to see you all tomorrow."

"Bye, Danny!" They said in union too.

Ember was quite sad that her friend wasn't staying in the dorm too. If he was, then they could play anytime after school, without much problems. But she also knew that he had to keep his human half as a secret and that sleeping in a safe place away from the eyes of strangers would be safer for him. That's at least what her father explained to her.

The walk back home was quiet. The silver werewolf knew it was because the fun the boy was having had abruptly ended. He then sighed and suggested to the boy to raise his spirit a little, so the boy's father wouldn't get the wrong impression of his first day of school. "How about if we race home. I think I can run faster than you can fly."

Danny then looked to the older man and smiled: "I think I'm faster. Try to get me!" then he started flying being followed by Alphonse who ran keeping up with the boy. He had no intention of winning, he just wanted to keep close of him, so he wouldn't get lost or something like that, but then seeing how the boy flew fast for his age, he sped up and ended up arriving first than Danny at their home.

For some reason, Alphonse felt good at beating the boy at this 'game'. He then used this opportunity to say to the boy: "Looks like you still have a long way until you can beat me. But you're quite fast. No wonder you told me that you liked to fly. If you use this same enthusiasm at your studies, you'll be the top of your class. You're very smart. I know that."

Danny just smiled at the compliment and when Alphonse opened the door of the house. They were greeted by one white-furred lycanthrope maid who happened to be dusting the entrance. After Danny got back from his first day at school, he was hyped to tell his father about everything that had happened and asked to the maid: "Do you know where my daddy?"

The maid found really weird that the boy's father had been staying at the house, but she said nothing about it. It wasn't her place to judge someone else's decisions. "He's at the library, young master."

Danny then looked to Alphonse who told him where it was and the boy flew right there with a big smile on the face. '_Was I the only kid in the world who didn't get excited with such trivial things?'_ the werewolf wondered in his mind.

"I'll be going to my room now. Please tell those two and me when lunch is ready."

The maid replied: "As you wish, sir."

Alphonse's room was also on the second floor. As he walked smirked as he elaborated how he could make the boy agree to work on his personal project. After all he had the boy's entire trust and he knew which buttons to press to make him believe at every word he said.

* * *

The three human kings were reunited once again. And now that they had been fortifying their kingdoms for the past years, each of them had finally been able to turn them into huge anti-ghost fortresses. But through it all, King Raymond still didn't like it very much and his opinion of flowers hadn't changed. He never liked them and still found them to make his kingdom look weak and effeminate. He made a mental note to burn those flowers as soon as the ghost threat was gone.

That was another of their regular and scheduled meetings. King Raymond was sure that they would now discuss the invading plans. He had been arming his forces to the teeth to attack the Dead Forest. However the course of the meeting took a way he didn't expect.

King Thurston said: "I know we've been preparing ourselves for quite a good time now, but don't you two think it's strange that the ghosts didn't try to attack us?"

King William nodded and replied: "True. Maybe those three ghosts were just bluffing so we would spare their lives."

But the oldest man in the room didn't like where this was going and quickly intervened: "Please, don't tell be that you two **kids **are backing down now? The ghosts are a serious matter. Don't dare take them lightly. They're most likely plotting our very own doom right now!"

King Irongrip was a very prideful man. He thought that, being the oldest person in the room, it automatically gave him 'wisdom' and therefore he should be followed and respected even when his opinions were completely away from all reasoning and logic.

"King Raymond, I've been thinking about this for a while now. Don't you think that the sole reason for your hatred against ghosts is solely because your daughter mated with one?" King Mason dared to say.

That comment made the older man's ire rise and it was clearly noticed by the other two when he slammed his fists on the circular table where they were sitting next to. "Don't you dare say that again! She wasn't my daughter! She was corrupted by that ghost and it's clear that they are a huge threat! Those birds even talked about a retaliation, or are you forgetting this already? Are you going to just sit down and let them destroy everything you hold dear? Don't you have any guts?"

Seeing his father-in-law losing his temper, King William said: "I know you're still mad for what happened, but I have to agree with King Mason in this matter. We haven't had any contact with ghosts for a long time and, as I said, I think it was just a ruse what those ghost birds said. Also, if that man ghost (?) who 'mated' with Madeline truly wanted revenge for killing her and their unborn child, don't you think he would have come right on the next day to do so? If we act solely on isolated happenings, we might rage a war against a kingdom who doesn't desire war."

"You must be kidding me. After everything, after all the preparations, I just can't believe that you two are backing down now!" said the older of the men in the room getting up of his chair.

King Mason tried to reason with him: "Please, King Raymond, calm down! Both me and King Baxter agree that, unless the ghosts show a sign that their leader desires to fight against us, we can't be the ones to throw the first stone!"

"You two are pathetic and weak! I'll show you all! I'll destroy the ghosts with my own military force. Just wait!" Then the man stormed out of the room slamming the door behind him.

"What has gotten into him?" questioned King Mason a bit fearful.

King William just sighed and said: "He's always like this. Using his personal hatred as an excuse for his actions. Maybe he'll understand that it's better for us to wait until the ghosts show signs of hostility before we attack. In any case, we can't just get ourselves into a mess that King Irongrip is bringing himself into."

"I agree." Said King Thurston nodding.

What they didn't knew was that King Raymond was still listening on the other side of the room. He had decided to give them a little chance to run to reach him to come after him and say that they agree with him, but for to his surprise they had completely abandoned him.

His temper was completely almost out of control. He practically stomped his way back to his carriage and ordered his men to take him back to Amikeco Parko immediately.

Even the soldiers were taken a little back with the hostile tone of voice of their king and they decided to comply what he said without saying a thing. None of them wanted to bring the wrath of their king upon themselves.

'_I'll show them all. I'll crush the ghosts myself! I can't believe they decided to ignore such a threat! They even managed to corrupt my own daughter! I'll start a war myself! I have all means necessary and…_' then the king stopped his own thoughts as he realized something.

* * *

His eyes went wide and his mouth opened in shock. '_That's it! This is the only possible explanation. They __**want**__ me to start a war against the ghosts. If I start a war myself and end up losing they're going to try use it as an opportunity to befriend those unholy spawns and even help them to destroy me and take over my kingdom! They're all going to pay for they treachery. Every single one of them! Both humans and ghosts! I'll divide my army in two. One to destroy the ghosts and the other to kill the corrupt humans_!'

Then the king's carriage suddenly stopped. The king was initially confused, but then his anger voiced for him: "What's the meaning of this? Why did you stop?"

"Your highness, there's a man here who wants to talk with you. He says to be Baron Jack Fenton and he wishes to have an audience with you, your majesty." Answered the man guiding the carriage fearfully.

"What? What does he desire?" questioned the king.

"I-I don't know, your highness…" said the man wincing.

The man growled and said: "If you don't know, then **ask** him!"

The man who was guiding the carriage got down and went to comply to his king's orders. It didn't take long until he was back to report him. "Your majesty, Baron Jack Fenton wants to tell you that he wishes to continue working with his anti-ghost gadgets under your supervision, because King Manson won't support that anymore."

The King Irongrip blinked a few times and he found himself grinning. '_Maybe there's still light in the end of the tunnel.'_ Then he ordered to bring the man inside of his royal carriage so they could discuss a little bit.

* * *

In the Werewolf Village, Danny treasured the time he spent with his father at Alphonse's home before he had to leave. The young hybrid missed his father during the week, but he was glad that they could still be reunited during the weekends.

Vlad hadn't mentioned the books he had read to the silver lycanthrope at all. All he had said was that the werewolf had an 'interesting collection' and the lycanthrope smirked with the praise.

The classes were going smoothly for Danny. He was a bright kid and Alphonse also helped him with any problem the boy had with his home assignments. But he never gave the answers to the boy. He always taught what the question was really about and allowed Daniel to reach for the answer on his own.

Danny also was happy for being able to play with his friends after school time. Despite of missing his family during the week, the boy was quite content with his new life.

One day, while Daniel was doing his homework in his room, Alphonse was at the library preparing himself for the classes he was going to give on the next day when he heard someone knocking at the door of his library.

"Come in." said the lycanthrope expecting it to be the boy with some kind of question about his homework, but it was the white-furred maid who was there.

"Master, you have a visit. It's Lord Wulf." The maid said.

Being the son of the village leader, most of people treated both Wulf and his father, Nicolas, with the title of 'Lord'. Every ghost treated their respective village leader and their children with this title, for a matter of fact.

'_I bet Vladimir asked Wulf to keep an eye at the boy every now and then.'_ He thought trying not to groan. "Take him to the living room. I'll be right there."

The maid bowed and said: "Very well, Master" then she left.

The silver lycanthrope first organized his desk before he went downstairs. He wasn't in hurry to have a 'fruitless' talk with his childhood 'friend'.

When he got there, Wulf welcome him with a warm smile: "Hi, Alphonse! How are you and Danny doing?"

'_Wow, he doesn't even hide it…_' the silver werewolf thought before answering with a forced smile on his own: "We're doing fine. The boy is getting used to his new situation quite well. So, did you come here to check on him? I could call him for you. He would be quite happy to meet you."

The black-furred werewolf shook his head and said with a sheepishly grin: "No, no. I'm here to talk with you."

Alphonse raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms: "Really? What is it about?"

Wulf scratched the back of his head and said: "Do you remember my youngest sister, Jadiwiga? She's turning twenty-one in two weeks. And she's still single."

'_Nononononono._' Thought Alphonse knowing were this conversation was going to.

"I accidentally saw your father at my own father's home and he mentioned how you liked my sister and you know what? My sister also likes you." Wulf said with a smile.

_'That little…He's going to ruin everything. I can't get married now! Especially with __**Wulf**__'s sister!' _Alphonse thought as he desperately tried to make something up to prevent this from going any further, but nothing came to his mind.

"R-Really? She really likes me?" Alphonse said but that sounded the opposite of he wanted it to sound.

Wulf nodded "Yes! Don't you think it's great? We'll become brothers-in-law!"

"Joy…"Alphonse mumbled while thinking of ways he could make his father pay for putting him into such situation.

But Wulf didn't hear that and so he continued: "Hey, I have to go now. I just wanted to say that I'm looking forward having you in my family. But you need to learn how to voice you own feelings. Sending you father to give the news for you was quite strange."

"I'll keep that in mind…" Alphonse said doing the best he could to don't turn his smile into a heavy frown.

Wulf then patted his friend on the shoulder and said his byes to him before he left.

Alphonse remained calm as he silently went back to his library and as soon as he closed the door, he punched the wall fiercely, cracking it a bit. '_That __**bastard**__! I should have known that he would try do something against me for leaving the house and refuse to help him to gain fame at my expense._' He thought.

_'I have to do something. In two weeks, I'll most likely be married and because of that going outside on my own at the middle of the night is going to be really hard! I have to hasten my plans if I want to figure it out what the hell is inside of the Cave of Beginning! I can deal with this marriage thing later. It'll be harder for me to keep the boy from telling his father about where I'm taking him.'_

Then he took deep breathes trying to calm himself down. He elaborated a few theories in his head. It was still Tuesday, but he had no time to waste. They might have to take several trips to the Cave of Begging and the lycanthrope was aware that if he rushed too much he could destroy all his effort so far.

But then he smiled and decided to gamble with his best idea so far. The boy trusted him and he was going to exploit that.

He then went to Danny's room and knocked the door. When the boy allowed him to enter, Alphonse closed the door behind him and approached the boy who looked at him happily. "Boy, would you like to partake in a personal project of mine?" said Alphonse.

End of chapter 10

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review. I love to read your comments.


	11. Cave of Beginning

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, DaughterofPoseidon32498, Shaddow the Spirit and Christopher Scott

* * *

Danny looked at the lycanthrope quite confused. "You want me to be part of a personal project of yours? What do you mean?"

The werewolf chose his next words very carefully: "It's quite simple, Daniel. I've discovered a very ancient place inside of the Dead Forest. What it has inside of it might change the entire history as we know it!"

The young hybrid was listening with attention at the older ghost's words. His curiosity to know exactly what the werewolf was talking about was getting the best of him: "Really? Change how? How can I help?"

Alphonse smirked as he answered: "The place I'm talking about is called the 'Cave of Beginning'. It supposedly contains the secret of our origins. Can you imagine how we ghosts even came to be? Most of us think that we existed much before the humans, while others think we appeared later and the rest think that both species appeared at the same time. That cave will have the answer for that! As for your help, I'll explain everything when we get there. But I assure you that it'll be harmless. So you have nothing to worry about, but to go through a huge circle of fireflies. But you can wait outside of it while I bring the cave up. We know how the fireflies affect you and how long it would take until you stabilize again after touching one."

The werewolf also didn't want Danny to touch the 'Ring of Eternal Vigor' because if one firefly made him feel his body burning, he didn't even want to imagine what could happen to the boy if he even touched the ring by accident. The pain would be unbearable for him and so he wouldn't be able to keep in contact with the ring long enough to receive the positive effect of it. This would cause a much bigger side effect on the boy and Alphonse wasn't going to risk all his hard work. Being a full ghost all he needed was to have a short contact with the ring and he could withstand its bad effects much better than the kid in front of him.

"I see…" said the boy also remembering the little incident years ago, but he shook his head away of those thoughts and then asked his teacher: "Professor Alphonse, can I tell my daddy about it? I think he'll like to see this place as well."

The werewolf was already expecting that suggestion for the boy. He truly wanted for the boy not to be so attached to his father. He couldn't comprehend why the two were so close, but he answered: "As I said, Daniel, this is a **personal** project of mine. The only reason why I'm telling you this is because I think you could help me a lot being my assistant on this experiment. But I know how you don't like to keep things away from your father. I completely understand that. How about you only tell him what you've been up to with me after **we** finish exploring and studying it." Alphonse emphasized that he and the boy were going to share the discoveries. The lycanthrope hoped to make the boy feel important and therefore accept it. Even if the boy desired to tell his father, he would agree with the term to wait until Alphonse finished studying it.

The werewolf decided to go to the Cave of Beginning a few times and discover as much as he could about it. Then he would start stalling saying that his studies were 'inconclusive' and that he needed more time. Meantime, he would give the boy many other things to worry about, like extra exams, show him around the werewolf village among other things. This way, he hoped that the boy would eventually forget about it and even if he didn't, he could always say that the cave's secrets weren't supposed to be discovered and tell the boy it could be dangerous if they tried to push it any further and that it would be better if the two of them forget all about it. It was risky, but it was the best shot he had.

Danny was curious to know about this place, but again he didn't like to keep things away from his father. However, he was glad that Alphonse let him tell to Vlad about the things they'll discover. The hybrid wondered how proud his father would be knowing that his son took part at a huge discovery.

"I want to help you, Professor Alphonse. I promise to keep it a secret until you're done. But are we going to start going to this place today?"

Alphonse shook his head and said holding back his satisfied smile: "No, we aren't going to start going there today. That place can only be accessed late at night, so let's leave it for tomorrow. Try get as much sleep this night and when you're done with school, tomorrow, do your homework and try take a nap. We'll be going there near midnight or so. It's the best time to do it."

The boy nodded. He had to admit he was looking forward to see such a place. He was going to uncover, alongside with his teacher, some kind of hidden secret. It even looked like one of the adventure books he had read about ghosts looking for hidden treasures and fighting bad guys. But he didn't know what the cave held within it was far from a what a child's fairy tail described.

* * *

On the next day, both Alphonse and Danny kept with their daily routine, but the young hybrid didn't play with his friends after school because of what Alphonse had planned for them that night.

The boy could barely hide his anxiety. Alphonse had also warned him to not tell a thing about where they were going to anyone else, not even his friends of someone who worked at the silver lycanthrope's home.

When everyone of the staff left the house, Daniel, who was still in his ghost self, was at his room, lying on the bed, waiting until Alphonse to call him. The boy didn't know what to take there. Alphonse told him he didn't have to bring anything else, which seemed quite weird for the boy.

Then the hybrid heard someone knocking at the door before opening it. It was the silver werewolf. He wasn't surprised catching the boy awake. He doubted the boy would really fall asleep before such an 'adventure'. But he sighed, because he knew that the boy would be tired on the next day and he couldn't do it on the weekends because the kid was with his family and he wouldn't even dare to make Vlad get suspicious of him by asking if the boy would stay at his abode for just one weekend.

"I see you're up. But, really, you should have taken at least a nap, boy." Alphonse said.

Danny saw that the werewolf was holding with his left hand a small lamp with a couple of fireflies inside. But recalling the question, the boy sat on his bed and scratched the back of his head: "I couldn't sleep…But are we going to take just that lamp?" The boy actually tried to sleep like he was told, but he hasn't taken afternoon naps since he was six.

The lycanthrope nodded: "Yes. This is everything we need. If we go now we might get home a bit sooner. Remember to always stay near me and don't wander into the forest by yourself. Ever!"

Danny remembered that his father had told him the same thing. He didn't know what was dangerous in the forest to begin with. He had gone there some more times with his father at other camping trips and there was no danger at all as long he avoided the fireflies.

The boy got up off of the bed and saw his teacher take a black tissue from his pocket and cover the lamp, so it's shine couldn't be seen. "Why did you do that?" Danny asked.

Alphonse replied with a smile: "It's because we don't want to have our little secret to be discovered, do we?" after saying that he turned and said: "Let's go."

Danny promptly followed him. He had never gone outside in the middle of the night like that. Granted, he was with an adult, but he felt both very curious and somehow with a small pang of guilty. He started thinking why so much secrecy about all that. His father had told him that someone who didn't have anything to fear never tried to hide anything. But Alphonse seemed to be fearless like his father, so the boy could only think that the werewolf was just trying to make everyone a huge surprise with his discoveries. The last one was what the boy believed the most.

They walked downstairs and when they left the home, Alphonse carefully closed the door and then placed the keys in his pocket. The two ghosts walked in the dark night heading where the Cave of beginning was.

Danny's night vision was really poor. Most of the ghosts couldn't see well in the dark, so the boy carefully stayed near his teacher all the time to not get lost. Even during night, at the camping trips with his father, he would always light a bonfire or bring a lamp with fireflies. "It's very dark…" the boy muttered.

Alphonse knew it would be easier for the kid if he removed the tissue over the lamp to make things brighter, but that could backfire and make someone spot them.

"Don't worry, Daniel. Everything will be alright. Just stay close to me. When we get deep inside of the forest, I'll take the cover of this lamp and it'll be much better for you. Don't worry." Alphonse assured him. He didn't want the boy starting to chicken out.

Fortunately, for the lycanthrope, his words had success with the boy and Daniel relaxed a bit more as he stayed very near the werewolf. But Alphonse couldn't deny that he was a bit annoyed by that whole situation. He didn't like to depend of someone else to achieve his goals, especially a kid. But he was thankful that kids could be easily tricked given the right words.

After some time, they got deep into the woods and Alphonse fulfilled his promise of allowing the lamp to shine their path. He placed the tissue back into his pocked as they continued walking.

Alphonse knew the right path because he followed the flow of fireflies that got more and more intense with the time. Danny had never seen so much of those little green orbs together before and he looked at them in both wonder and wariness, after all, he didn't want to touch them.

After some more, the two of them arrived at the place where all the fireflies where gathering. Danny saw in wonder as the green orbs moved around in a circle and as the time passed by the more fireflies joined it and brighter became the ring.

Alphonse knew that he didn't have to wait until the ring to be complete to bring the Cave of Beginning up. He looked to the boy and patted him on the head as he said giving him the lamp to hold: "Hold this for me. I'll be right back. Prepare yourself to be amazed." The werewolf finished his sentence with a smile as he entered into the ring.

The numbness quickly struck him. But he endured it without showing it. He didn't want to worry the boy. He didn't want to give him a reason to hesitate at such an important moment.

He kept walking as the awful feeling was replaced by the intense vigor. He smirked at that. He always felt invincible. He approached the purple glow on the ground and unburied the little box that held the gear-like medallion in it.

The older ghost carried the box outside of the ring and the younger hybrid looked at the object with curiosity, but before he could ask what that was the ground started to rumble as a huge building came out of the ground. Even the ring made of fireflies disappeared when the cave appeared.

Alphonse saw Danny's jaw wide open as the Cave of Beginning emerged and chuckled lightly. "That's the Cave of Beginning, Daniel."

Danny looked in awe at the building in front of him. He couldn't believe that such a huge thing came out of the floor like that. Even the landscape changed to adjust itself to the massive construction.

Then the boy noticed the lycanthrope pressing the box and when it made a 'click' sound, the medallion fell on the ground . The boy looked with attention at it. He had never seen anything like it before.

Alphonse picked the medallion from the ground and then told the boy: "I'm going to use the 'key' to open the cave. Just watch."

Then the werewolf approached the entrance of the building and placed the medallion in the hole and then rotated it. The doors slowly opened revealing a path lightened by fireflies attached to the walls.

Danny looked at that in wonder. He could only wonder how his teacher found out about that place. But he was dragged away from his thoughts when Alphonse said: "Boy, now it's your part. But you don't have to do it unless you really want it." Then he added in his mind: '_One step back to give two forward. That's the best way to handle kids.'_

The boy swallowed dry. He wanted to help, but he didn't know what he had to do so he asked the werewolf: "I-I want to do it. What you want me to do?"

The werewolf tried not to smile as he said with as much concern as much he could put on his voice as he kneeled down to look the boy right into his eyes. "I need you to go inside of the cave. Try go to the deepest part of it take a look at what it has inside and then come back to me to tell me what you saw. You'll have to turn to your human self before you enter it. But, as I said before, if you don't want to. It's okay. Unfortunately, I can't go inside it myself. I would have asked one or another human friends of mine to assist me with this, but I thought we could share this discovery together." The older ghost lied in his last statement so that he could make the boy feel as comfortable as possible.

"All I have to do is walk inside see what it has at the end and come back to tell you?" the boy asked to be sure of what he had to do. It sounded simple enough, but there was some uncertainty in his mind.

The werewolf nodded as he said: "Yes. But remember. If you feel too scared, you can always run back to the entrance. I'll be waiting right here. But you have to give me the lamp. Anything ghostly can't get inside of it."

The boy returned the lamp to Alphonse and looked at the entrance of the strange building . He took a deep breath and turned human. He carefully stepped inside of the cave and slowly moved inside of it.

Alphonse was glad that he had taken a few brown clothing from a human village the last weekend, when Danny was away with his family, and made the boy wear them that day. The fabric used by the ghosts couldn't phase through the anti-ghost shield of the cave's entrance.

The boy often looked behind to make sure his teacher was still there. Alphonse resisted to the urge of rolling his eyes at that but he kept encouraging the boy to both continue and quit if he so desired.

Danny wanted to continue. It was just a simple task. He didn't want to be afraid at such ordinary thing. So he continued to go deeper and deeper until he could barely see the entrance anymore. From outside the cave wasn't so long. The boy didn't know why it was different than that from inside. When he was seriously thinking about turning back, he saw a door. It had the same 'CW' symbol that the medallion did and it also had a handle. The boy hesitantly opened it.

What he saw amazed him much more. It was almost like some kind of sanctuary. The walls were plain white, on the top of the square room there were countless of fireflies together and it was so bright it seemed to be daytime. But what was in the center of it was what made his jaw drop. It was a tree. A common-looking tree. It green leaves, branches and a healthy looking appearance in opposite to the dead trees that the boy was used to see. In fact, Danny had never seen a normal tree in his life.

Then the boy noticed that carved on the tree's trunk was another blue 'CW'. The boy could only wonder what those letters stood for. He gave another look to see if there was anything else he should tell Alphonse. He saw that near the roots of the tree there was soil and some red-colored leaves. The boy knew that leaves often changed their color after they got detached from a tree, that's what he studied about human botany anyway. But then one leaf fell from one of the branches before his eyes. The boy quickly grabbed it while it was gliding in the air and picked one of the red leaves and left the room without closing the door rushing towards the entrance.

It didn't take long until the boy reached Alphonse who was waiting there for him. Alphonse looked expectant to hear what the boy had to say. He wasn't inside for that much time, but the werewolf was consuming himself with the desire to know what was inside of the cave.

But he was shocked when the boy told him about the weird door, the room and also a tree. If it were for the fact that Alphonse knew that the kid was no liar and because he had brought the evidence with him, he would have doubted. "Are you sure that was it? There was no other door or writings on the walls?"

The boy shook his head negatively as he turned back to his ghost self. Alphonse was sure that the kid must have forgotten to check that place properly. He really wanted to be able and do it all by himself because he refused to believe that the huge secret to the origin of the ghosts was a normal-looking tree. The only thing he found mysterious was that the boy mentioned that he had seen the same 'CW' symbol on the tree. The werewolf decided to call it a day and come back some other time. He wanted to check on his books if they mentioned anything about a tree.

After Alphonse made the Cave of Begging submerge again, he and the boy went back to their home. Danny, naturally was filled with questions, but Alphonse tried not to be rude and asked him to ask him after his school on the next day. He had to think some more and also research about what he had told him.

Little did they know that they were being watched from above by a blue-skinned ghost.

End of chapter 11

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. Please review. I love to read your comments.


	12. Of Spring and Autumn

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Shaddow the Spirit, DaughterofPoseidon32498 and Christopher Scott for your reviews.

* * *

Alphonse had taken a quite long time studying those leaves the boy had given him from that weird tree at the Cave of Beginning. They were very intriguing. That green leaf had begun to redden as soon as they arrived home. The werewolf didn't know much about leaves, he never got interested in botany before.

The lycanthrope had to sneak out at night, hidden even from the boy, to outside of the Dead Forest to grab as many leaves from the trees from the human's side. He took these leaves and studied them.

He achieved two conclusions: that those leaves from the Cave of Beginning were identical to the leaves from ordinary trees and that the leaves from the normal trees took a much longer time to change their color. It was this last discovery that made the werewolf understand that tree wasn't normal.

Alphonse also searched for his books that contained the information about the Cave of Beginning, but he read nothing about a tree, vegetables of anything that made photosynthesis for a matter of fact.

Danny didn't help much either. In fact, he only made Alphonse more nervous. The kid kept asking if he discovered everything already and the lycanthrope had to hold himself all the times to not give a harsh answer to the boy. He had a better result by telling the hybrid that when he had any news about the cave he would be the first to whom he would tell. Danny got pleased with that and left his teacher alone. The boy was confident that the werewolf would discover everything because he was really smart and the boy thought he knew almost everything.

Alphonse only grew very frustrated as he the days passed by. He couldn't get any clue of what that tree meant or even what CW stood for. He tried every combinations of words starting with these two letters and also got the most weird combinations out of it. He intended to go another time at that cave and make sure the boy looked inch by inch inside of the tree chamber. But he had to wait to the next week because Vlad's visit day was approaching and Alphonse didn't want the boy looking tired for no reason.

When Friday arrived, Vlad knocked on the door to pick Danny for the weekend. The child was still packing his things upstairs, but Alphonse was the one to open the door and greet Count Vlad.

"Good afternoon, Count Vlad." Greeted Alphonse with a forced smile.

But, unlike all the previous times, Vladimir had a very saddened expression his face. "Good afternoon…Is Daniel ready?"

The werewolf immediately knew that there was something off with the man. "Your son is still getting ready. Come in."

Vlad accepted the offer and got inside of Alphonse's home. Usually the blue-skinned ghost talked about something the werewolf considered trivial when they waited for Daniel to come, but the Count was awfully quiet.

"Is there something wrong?" Alphonse asked warily. He wasn't doing it out of pity, but also because the boy would find it weird for his father to have such a sad expression while he was hyped. Besides, he also feared that Vlad's current state might have something to do with him. He knew that it was almost impossible for Vlad to have discovered something about him, but one thing the werewolf learned in his life was to never ignore a chance, even if it's very slim.

Vlad turned to the lycanthrope and said with a sigh: "Is it so obvious?"

"Well, you look like something is bothering you. It might do some good if you just let it out…" the werewolf said.

The count then answered: "A very dear friend for both me and my father passed away. His name was Edmund. He died of old age on Tuesday. Well, he was 517 years-old after all. At least he had a peaceful death in his sleep…"

"I see…" Alphonse's muscles relaxed as he heard that. He didn't care for some old ghost who died, but at least that had nothing to do with him. But then he continued: "I don't know how much close the two of you were, but don't you think that you should try cheer up. Don't get me wrong, however I think your son is going to get depressed along with you if you tell him that. You know how he's like."

"You're right about that. But sometimes pretending to be happy is really impossible…" Vlad answered. He didn't want for him son to be sad too, but he couldn't hide it either. Edmond did come to their house some times and even talked a lot with the hybrid. He was one of the few people who knew about Danny being the son of a human female. It was a pity that good souls had to leave the world…

'_No. All it needs is years of practice.' _Alphonse answered in his mind. "Well, I guess you have to follow your paternal instincts on this one." But the werewolf himself didn't even know what his own words actually meant.

"Yeah…" Vlad said right before they noticed the noise of someone running down the stairs.

"Daddy!" Daniel said happily carrying his bag. The boy was very happy to see his father, but his smile faded when he encountered with his father's saddened expression: "What's wrong, daddy? Did I do something wrong?"

Those words made the parent quickly say: "No, son. You didn't do anything wrong. It's just…Do you remember Edmond?"

The boy just nodded in reply. Alphonse couldn't believe they would have that conversation in his home. But he allowed it. He decided it was for the best, because, this way, the boy would have the entire weekend to get over it.

"You see, son, Edmond was a very old ghost. Much older than your grandparents. He passed away. But he didn't suffer or anything like that." The parent tried to explain.

"Oh…" the boy said looking down. He liked that ghost. He was really friendly and nice to the boy. He remembered some stories the old ghost used to tell him, mostly about his youth. The boy felt a pang of sadness inside of his heart.

That silence was too weird for the werewolf. He hated being dragged to sappy conversations. He didn't care about that ghost. He didn't even know him. He questioned himself why did he had to hear all that and see both 'Plasmiuses' get filled with sorrow. Death is only a natural thing. Everything dies, humans, animals and even ghosts. Why care when they died?

But he said nothing. He wasn't going to make any insensitive remark. He wasn't stupid. He gave a heavy sigh. "Daniel, I never met Edmond before. But as for what I've heard about him, I can say that he really cared about you. He's at a better place now. I know it hurts to have a loved one taken away from you, but that's part of life. You fall down, you see people you care about being hurt or dead, however, the most important thing is always keep going not only for your sake, but also for theirs. If they really cared about you, do you think they would be happy to see you moping for them? Be a strong and smart ghost when you grow up. Live up to their expectations and make them proud of you. That's what our loved ones who are gone truly want for us."

"Professor Alphonse…" Vlad said in awe at the lycanthrope's words.

The boy had a pretty similar reaction to them. He felt a single tear coming out of his eyes. The lycanthrope's words made him remind of his mother. The boy always missed her, but he didn't know why he did even tough he never actually met her. But he also saw truth in those words. He had to live happily not just for himself, but also for the ones he cared about too.

Alphonse wanted to groan. He had just made a big speech about love. He didn't believe in the words that came out from his mouth. He had acquired a quite vast knowledge about what to say to comfort others. The talent to wear several different masks and mimic emotions was an art he took years to learn and master. He couldn't afford others to discover about his true self. Those masks were his protection from the look of the others. That's why he loved being alone, because that was the only time he didn't have to wear any mask.

Vlad smiled and told the werewolf truthfully: "Thank you. I think I also needed to hear that…" then he looked to his son and said: "Come, Daniel, we still have a long way home." Then he looked to Alphonse and said: "Bye, Professor Alphonse. I see you on Sunday. Thanks for everything."

Danny also said his byes to Alphonse and the father and son left the werewolf's home. '_Why do I feel I need to baby-sit both a kid and a grown up man?..._' After that he went back upstairs to continue his research about the tree.

The weekends passed by quite quickly. Danny noticed that the time he spent with his family having some fun always did seem to go faster than a whole day of school.

Alphonse also had a quick weekend because he was so focused on his books about the Cave of Beginning that he didn't feel the time passing by.

When the boy came back, on Sunday afternoon, the lycanthrope asked the boy if they could go again that night to the depths of the Dead Forest once more. The werewolf had sliced the leaves the boy had brought him that they were practically useless now, so he needed some fresh samples and try to see if they could bring them home fast enough so he could examine them while they were still green. Last time they practically walked all the way back to the Werewolf Village.

The boy agreed with that. He was feeling full of energy and he also wanted to go back there. That place fascinated him in many different ways, so he wanted to know more about it.

Alphonse also didn't ask the boy if he didn't tell anyone about their secret. His life experience told him that such blunt question would make the boy doubt of lycanthrope's trust. Besides, if the hybrid did tell anyone, what could he do? He would rather leave that situation be than risk a chance of losing the boy's trust.

When they got near the mass amount of fireflies gathering. Alphonse had, once again, told the boy to wait outside of the ring, while he brought the cave up. He unburied the purple box and took it out of the firefly-made spinning ring. As the cave rose again, Alphonse took the gear-like medallion from the box and placed it on the hole to turn it and open the door.

Alphonse then explained: "Look, Daniel. What I want you to do today is try to pick a leaf for me directly from the tree. But before that see if you can spot anything unusual. What I mean is to look for anything that might have changed since the last time you went there, okay?" he asked that because he wasn't sure if the boy's time inside of the Cave of Beginning changed something or not inside of it. He didn't know how that place worked, so he worked with every possibility his mind could conceive.

The boy did as he was told and turned human before going inside of the cave. For some reason, even though that was his second time inside, he still felt like he wasn't supposed to be there. That place was quite intimidating when you're all alone, but the boy noticed something different this time.

The door at the bottom was wide open. He remembered that it was closed when he first got there. As he approached it he remembered that he hadn't close it last time. He carefully got inside of the room and sighed relieved seeing that everything was the way it was when he left.

Danny then climbed the tree. It was quite hard doing that considering that he couldn't use any of his ghostly power to aid him. After some time trying to climb the tree he got on of one of the many branches of the tree and tried to pull it with one hand while he got a better hold of himself with the other.

The boy tried, but he couldn't detach the small leaf from the branch. He then tried with both hands, but that was a mistake. Pulling the leaf with both hands left him only with the legs to sustain himself. The boy then lost his balance and fell from the branch, but kept holding the leaf. Surprisingly, not even with the boy's entire weight, he could take the leaf from the branch.

But the boy yelled when he fell from the branch and now he was dangling one the air yelling for his teacher to help him.

Outside of the cave, the Lycanthrope was wondering why was the boy taking so long. '_Maybe he discovered something…'_ he thought. But when he heard the boy's pleas for help, he, who was at the very entrance, stepped into to help the boy.

He gave a few steps before he realized what he had just done. He, a ghost, had just entered into the Cave of Beginning. He was stunned. He couldn't do that before. He wondered what had changed. He thought it might have been the boy's presence inside of it, after all he didn't try going inside while he was there before. But his thoughts were pushed aside when he heard Danny pleas once more.

He decided he would take a better look after he saved the boy. So he went to the bottom of the cave and got inside of the chamber where Danny was. He quickly got under the boy and told him: "You can let go. I'll catch you."

Danny nodded and let go of the leaf falling on the werewolf's arms, who gently put him back on the ground.

Now that the boy was safe, Alphonse took a better look at his surroundings. Everything the boy had told him was true. He wondered how could such place exist. He was certain that the place was very special.

But than he remembered the kid near him. He wanted to groan to have to take care of a kid specially when he was at a place he wanted to study inch by inch. "Are you okay, Daniel?"

The boy nodded and then answered: "I'm sorry…I couldn't take the leaf. No matter how much I pulled it wouldn't just fall. I didn't know they were so strong." But then he realized that his teacher was inside of the cave. He thought he couldn't get inside of it. "How did you get in?" the boy asked.

"I don't know…" he answered truthfully. The lycanthrope had seen the boy hanging himself on that leaf. No leaf was supposed to be this resistant. That was another thing he wanted to explore, but he could do it on the next day. The boy obviously had gone through too much for one night, but then he saw a leaf being born on that same branch where Danny was hanging onto.

He wondered what that meant. But he decided to leave it for another day, so he could study for a longer time alone. He thought would try going there alone some other day to try see if he could go inside all by himself again without the boy's presence. That's what he thought that could make him come inside of the cave. "Let's go home, Daniel. I think we did more than enough for tonight."

Daniel left the room and waited for his teacher. Before leaving as well, the werewolf picked up some red leaves on the ground. He wanted fresh ones, but those would have to do. He intended to bring a knife or another sharp weapon to try cut a branch to see if he could get the fresh specimen he desired.

Alphonse then left the chamber carrying the leaves with his right hand and as soon as the lycanthrope closed the door behind them with his free hand, his body started to shine a blue aura as it levitated from the ground. "What the…" it was all he could say before he was thrown at a high speed towards the exit of the Cave of Beginning.

Danny rushed to his teacher and left the chamber. "Professor Alphonse, are you alright?" he asked worried.

The lycanthrope groaned as he stared at the cave. He didn't know what had just happened. He was fine even when he stepped outside of the chamber. If it were the boy's absence he would have been throw the moment he stepped outside of that tree chamber or even just as soon as the boy left.

But then he realized. He was thrown away as soon as he closed the door. He quickly got up and tried to go inside of the cave, but the invisible ghost shield was activated once again. He even forgot to answer the boy's question because his mind was thinking on a certain possibility.

"Daniel, could you please go inside again and just open that door. You can come back right after that." The werewolf asked him.

The boy was still worried about his teacher, but he decided to comply his weird request. While the boy went inside of it, Alphonse kept pressing his hand against the shield.

As soon as Danny opened the door, Alphonse's hand went inside of the cave. The lycanthrope smile went wide because of such discovery. The door was what activated and deactivated the ghost shield. It wasn't the boy's presence there as he initially thought.

When the boy came back to the entrance, he questioned his teacher once more: "Are you alright, Professor?"

Alphonse was in pure ecstasy for the major breakthrough. "I've never been better!" he answered with a creepy smile that scared even Danny.

After the werewolf noticed how worriedly the boy was staring at him he quickly changed his expression to a more friendly smile. "You've done well, Daniel. You've been of great help to me. I really appreciate all your help."

The boy's smile came back with the flattery. He was glad he could help. But he wondered what all that place meant or even, **who** built it and for what purpose.

"Come, boy. It's time we go home. We have classes tomorrow." Alphonse said as he locked the place and did all the procedures to bury the cave back. After that the two of them went back to the Werewolf Village. But that was a sleepless night for the lycanthrope. He couldn't help but keep wondering the magnificent things he was going to discover on his next visit there.

On the next day, after school time, Alphonse was coming back from a small snack he had made when he accidentally overheard his two maids talking. "Lisa, did you hear that I am now an aunt?" said the white furred werewolf.

"Really? Is it a boy or a girl?" replied the brown-furred one.

"Well, it's a boy and he was born last night. My sister and her husband are really pleased. They have been trying to have a child for some time." She answered with a smile.

Alphonse rolled his eyes. He couldn't care less about their chit-chatting, but then something struck him like a tree falling over his head. '_Wait. Count Vlad said that Edmond died last Tuesday night and that kid was born on Sunday night. Those were the same days we visited the Cave of Beginning and saw those leaves dying and being born. Does that mean that weird tree is connect to our lives?'_ Alphonse thought.

Then his eyes went wide in horror as he realized: '_If that's true, then Daniel and I could have killed many ghosts if we had succeeded in pulling out some leaves. Many could have died! _

End of chapter 12

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. Please review! I love to read your comments!


	13. Arranged Marriage

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, DaughterofPoseidon32498 and Shaddow the Spirit for your reviews.

* * *

It took a good time for Alphonse to calm down from his latest discovery. That tree represented the life of all ghosts inside of the Dead Forest. When a leaf falls, it means that a ghost died and when one appears it means that a new ghost was born.

Granted, this information could be extremely valuable. He could easily get rid of anyone who threatened his existence. He even considered using it to get rid of his father, so he could finally become free of his schemes, however he quickly dismissed the idea. There was no way he could tell which leaf represented his father's life. He could end up killing himself in the process!

He also had to wonder that this was the reason why the leaves are so resilient to be detached from the tree. He was glad that Danny had failed in removing the leaf from the tree.

On the next day, at night, Alphonse went to the Cave of Beginning once again, but this time he was all alone. He had managed to convince Daniel to rest and also told him that the boy had helped him a lot and he was proud of him.

The boy believed in his words and went to rest that night satisfied and thinking that he had done something really good for his teacher.

When Alphonse brought the cave up once more he entered it. He was all alone and he would stay there until dawn if necessary, but he wasn't going to waste a single moment anymore.

He got inside of it and went straight to the tree chamber. The lycanthrope then fully examined the tree. He thought about taking a sample of the tree's trunk, but he feared what it could happen if he did so. That tree could end up killing all ghosts if damaged.

He examined every inch of that chamber, but he found nothing! He refused to believe that whoever built that place left no instructions at all! Then re realized that there was still one place that he hadn't tried to examine before. The ceiling.

It was full of extremely bright fireflies. A kind that he had never seen before. For one moment he wished he had brought with him a ladder, but it would be really troublesome to bring one. He then decided to climb the tree hoping it could handle his weight.

He decided to support himself on the main trunk and not on the branches to be sure that he wouldn't accidentally break a branch and therefore detaching any leaf from the tree.

He had some trouble to balance himself when he got to the top of it. When he got high enough he stretched his right arm and tried to touch the fireflies. For To his surprise, as soon as he touched them, he felt a burning hot sensation when he touched it.

'What is the meaning of this? I'm no human! Why did they burned me?' he questioned himself in his mind.

But he was taken away from his thoughts when he realized that the room was getting darker. The light of the fireflies were dimming and the lycanthrope quickly got down of the tree fearing he did something wrong.

Then he saw that in front of him dark blue letters were appearing. They were forming sentences which the werewolf read carefully:

"For the one whose thirst for knowledge is insatiable.

Read these words with extreme caution.

Your actions will have serious consequences.

This place was never meant to be discovered by ghosts or humans

Leave this place immediately and never come back.

Heed my words or you will endure a suffering beyond your very own imagination.

And, please, don't forget to close the door when you leave."

Alphonse's eyes were wide when he finished reading that. He couldn't believe what he had just read. Then the sentence disappeared and the lights came back as if nothing had changed.

The werewolf was as astonished as he was curious. Who or what exactly left that message? Was this person referring to the fact that the tree held the life of all the ghosts? And why did it seem that the first sentence was referring exactly to him?

So many questions and no answer. The lycanthrope felt like someone knew what he was going to do and left that message for him. But the question was 'who would do that?' There was no way someone could predict the future. That was what the lycanthrope thought anyway.

He then decided to leave the Cave of Beginning and as much as he hated to do it, he did close the door when he left. He didn't want to bring any kind of misfortune upon himself anymore.

Once again, he was literally thrown out of the cave as soon as he closed the door. He groaned as he got up and he closed the Cave and made sure to hide it once more.

While he went back home, he started to wonder about the reasons that the person who left that messaged had. Sure he initially thought that the person did it to protect the ghosts from being accidentally killed, but he started to formulate a new theory. What if the person who left that message wanted to prevent someone from getting control over the tree. He hadn't discover anything inside of the cave, but he wondered if there was any hidden manuscript. If his second theory were true, whoever controlled the tree would instantly become the new ghost king. Not that he was interest in the job. Being a king would make him be bound by several rules and responsibilities and Alphonse loved his freedom.

This made him remember of another subject. His incoming marriage with Wulf's sister, Jadiwiga.

'_I wonder if I can fake my own death or something...Nah. It would be a pain to have to change my name, appearance and I would probably have to live in a__n__ isolated place for the rest of my life. I can't believe I have to put up with this!_' Alphonse mused in his mind.

He sighed as he walked back home. He gave slow steps as he wondered about what was going on. There were too many things he didn't know and he didn't like it. Granted, he like solving hard puzzles, but there was no clue about what he should do to solve it and he had no idea about where to even start looking for it. Besides, everything seemed to make him just give up on his quest of solving the mystery of the beginning of the ghosts.

When he got to his abode, he went straight to the library and picked up all his books about the origin of the ghosts once again and placed them all over the table. When he was about to open the first one, he stopped.

'_What's the point? I've read these books countless times and I found nothing valuable in them! I've even checked for hidden pages and I was unsuccessful at that as well. I've searched for years for more books, caves and even rumors and I found nothing! This is so frustrating! Why would someone make several tips about that blasted cave so people could follow them, but to end up being told to leave that place alone? Was that some kind of sick joke? I bet those idiots are laughing in their graves for making me of a fool! This was just a waste of time and effort in the end. Damnit!'_ he thought as he got up from the chair and went straight to his room in order to get some rest.

When he lay down, he closed his eyes, but his mind kept mulling over the time he spent trying to solve that mystery. Sure he did discover what the tree's purpose was, but the biggest questions still remained: Who built the Cave of Beginning, What CW meant? Was CW the initials of the person who build it? How can a tree hold the lives of the ghosts in its leaves? Why did those fireflies burned him? Was he going to experience the same side effects that Daniel did?

These thoughts plagued his mind until dawn. Alphonse was tired and not in mood to go to work, but he had to. He also had to keep a good mood so the hybrid wouldn't discover about what he did last night. He doubted that Daniel would like to know that his teacher didn't have any use for him anymore.

But now that Alphonse had welcomed the child in his house he couldn't simply kick him out. He would have to endure the boy until he graduated. Also, Alphonse had closed the door of the Cave of Beginning, which made Alphonse rely on the boy in case he needed to go there again, but he doubted he would have to.

* * *

Days passed by and the promised day when the party in Wulf's house to celebrate Alphonse's engagement with Jadiwiga came. Wulf had invited only a few friends for that, including Vlad, Skulker and Desiree. It happened on a Saturday afternoon and the children were outside of the house playing while the adults were indoors celebrating. All but Alphonse.

Wulf was with his sister because she had asked him to tell her everything he knew about Alphonse. She wanted to know his likes and dislikes beforehand in order to please him later on. Surprisingly, Wulf found himself not really answering much, but not because he didn't want to, but because he realized he didn't know that much about his friend.

Vlad, Skulker and Desiree were told to have fun by their friend while he was busy filling Jadiwiga in with what he knew about Alphonse. Vlad had to admit he was quite happy for his son's teacher to get married and he congratulated him as soon as he spotted him.

The silver lycanthrope was in a horrible mood though. He didn't want to get married. He was aware that this would take his freedom away and he knew why he was in that stupid situation. Because of his father.

Wolfgang did all that on purpose as a revenge plot against his son for not "helping" him gain the king's favor. Alphonse's father was still researching for sources of arsenic and how he could use it to kill as many humans as possible. He was having quite a trouble keeping up with King Pariah's wishes.

So, he elaborated a plan. He would use Alphonse's 'closed' personality as a way of making him pass as a shy guy who was in love with Wulf's sister. If Wolfgang wasn't going to get any help from his son, so he would make sure Alphonse wouldn't be able to work on his personal projects either.

The silver lycanthrope was talking with Wulf's father, Nicolas, at the moment. "I'm glad you're going to marry my precious daughter, Alphonse. You and Wulf were like brothers when young and now you're going to officially enter the family. I hope you'll treat my daughter as she deserves!" the leader of the Werewolf Village said with a mix of playful and threatening tones, which Alphonse got that.

"You must not worry. I'll be sure to treat your daughter with all the respect she deserves. The only tears that'll fall from her eyes will be tears of absolute joy while she'll be with me. I promise you that." Alphonse said what he expected Nicolas wanted to hear.

The older black werewolf smiled pleased with Alphonse's words and nodded in approval. Then he asked: "Do you have plans for the wedding date?"

Alphonse hadn't thought that far. His concerns were divided with the whole mess with the Cave of Beginning and so he didn't fully prepared himself for this party. However, before anyone else could say anything, Alphonse's father, Wolfgang butted into the conversation.

"I've been discussing that with my son and we decided it to be on the first Sunday in two months. We do need some time to arrange everything."

Nicolas nodded in agreement. "It's nice to know we can count on you, but I insist that we help as well. I also would like to pick the wedding place, if this isn't too much for us to ask."

Wolfgang smiled and replied: "It won't be a problem at all. I'm sure my son shares the same feeling."

The two lycanthropes then looked to Alphonse who resisted the urge to groan out loud. "Sure…" he replied quietly.

Nicolas smiled and patted the younger silver lycanthrope on the back so hard that it shoved him a little forward: "Loosen up a little! You're part of family now, you don't have to act so shy near us."

"Thanks…"Alphonse said not knowing how to make Wulf's father to just shut up. But what he truly wanted was to put a gag in his own father's mouth for good.

But his thoughts were interrupted when Wolfgang told Nicolas: "Do you mind if I borrow my son for a while, Duke Nicolas? I need to have a word or two with him about the wedding. I would like to start planning the details to show you later."

The black-furred werewolf smiled and said: "I see. But don't take too long. This is a party, you know. And you don't have to be so formal with me. Soon our families will be one!"

The older silver werewolf was quite pleased to hear that. "I really appreciate that. I'm also looking forward to that."

Then the father and son went to a room of the house, distant from the ears of the other ghosts. When they were all alone, Alphonse was the first to ask trying not to yell in anger: "What the hell is that all about? Are you setting up this whole marriage crap just to get Duke Nicolas appreciation? Or is it revenge?"

The older werewolf snickered and replied: " It's a bit of both. Even if you did help your dear father in the moment of need, I would still do it. I also hope you keep in mind what will happen if you try to jeopardize my plans. No one would believe in you. I'm the one who has the fame and the prestige! You may be smart, but I'm the only one capable of putting what you can produce to a good use. Like that saying says 'Anyone can paint a picture, but only a true genius can sell it.' I hope you enjoy your new life, son. It'll be amusing. At least for me."

End of chapter 13

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. Please review. I love to read your comments.


	14. Confrontation part 1

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan and Christopher Scott for your reviews.

5)sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I've been really busy last week with college and my country elections.

* * *

Four years passed by quickly. Both humans and ghosts haven't started a war yet. While the ghosts were gathering the means to kill the humans without getting near of their defenses, the Kings William and Thurston decided to give up on the war plans against the ghosts. But they knew that King Raymond was still plotting the attack. However, the two kings didn't want to take part in that.

They wondered why the ghosts hadn't retaliated yet. They were sure that the ghosts were a pacific people who didn't want unnecessary confronts and the lack of news on them were the base of their thoughts.

They also wondered how much of what King Raymond said was true. As far as Kings William and Thurston were concerned, all Madeline did was fall in love with a ghost and king Raymond was the one who freaked out and most likely sentence his own daughter to death.

The two of them were discussing about the possibility of sending an ambassador to the Dead Forest and discuss some kind of peace pact between them. If King Irongrip wanted to rage a war, then they wanted their kingdoms to be safe from it.

Meanwhile, King Thruston's daughter, Samantha Mason, was outside of the castle riding horses with her friend Tucker Foley, son of Duke Adam.

They were riding near of the palace grounds of Samantha's kingdom. Samantha wasn't happy at all because her father set her up with King William's son, Dash Baxter. Her father was going to make her marry with someone she barely knew and from what she had seen from him, she spited that boy. He was rude, obnoxious and talked like he was the king of the world.

Dash acted like that because his father talked to him about how he was going to make three kingdoms become under his rule. King Raymond had no successor to his throne and King Mason was going to make his only child get married with Prince Dash Baxter. The king of the Malnova Pordo had announced the marriage one week ago. The Princess Mason and the Prince Baxter were going to celebrate their marriage when they reached the age of sixteen.

Sam's frustration was obviously visible. She had been moody all the time since the proclamation. What infuriated her the most was that she didn't have a saying in that matter and she had to obey and pretend to be nice to someone she considered to be a jerk.

"Come on, Sam. Don't make that face. It's not that bad." Her friend said.

"Not that bad? Tucker, I'm going to get married with the biggest jerk of the world! You're only saying that because you at least like the person your parents are making you marry with." She said turning to Tucker.

Tucker didn't reply. It's true that his parents arranged his married with Baroness Valerie Gray. He did like her a lot. He had known her since he was a kid, just like he knew Princess Samantha.

Samantha was a quite tom-boy kind of girl. She hated the pink and fancy dresses her mother made her wear, but she had to despite of her desire to rip them apart. She liked to be called 'Sam' when she was alone with her friends, which were just Tucker and Valerie.

The princess wanted to run away from that, but she didn't know where to run to. But just because she couldn't run away, it didn't mean that she couldn't at least take a breather from the whole stress.

"Hey, Tucker. Do you want to have some fun with me? Outside of these walls? We'll be back before they know it." Sam suggested. It's true that she always wanted to take a look around the world, but she was bound to stay within the castle grounds the whole time and she only left to go to neighbor kingdoms for parties and such.

"I don't know, Sam. What if they catch us? Besides what there's to see or so interesting?" Tucker asked warily. He had to admit that he was a little bit tempted to have a look outside, but his reasonable side won out in the end.

"Please, I can't escape entirely on my own. I promise you we'll be away for a few hours. Do this for me. I just would like to enjoy my freedom a little while I still can…" Sam said looking down.

The boy sighed and said: "Fine! But it'll be better if we don't get caught or else my neck will be at stake!"

Sam raised her head and with a big smile she said: "Don't worry. Just trust me. I know a way out of here that the guards don't even know about."

Outside of the Dead Forest two ghosts were flying while invisible looking for a human village or kingdom. The two were the now eighteen-year-old Johnny and the fourteen-year-old Daniel.

"Could you tell me again why are we disobeying both our parents and even the King's rules?" Danny asked worried.

"Come on, Danny! I have to get something from a human. It's a tradition of Lycan School that the seniors must get something from a human before they graduate or else I'll be mocked by everyone else until the end of my life!"

The hybrid sighed and said: "This is a stupid tradition…Why can't I borrow you something then? I am half human, you know. Or even why is this stupid tradition is still being held when we're at the verge of a war against the humans?"

"As you said, you're half human and remember that not many people know about that. It'll be better to keep it this way. Besides, when it became almost impossible for us to enter the big towns, the ghosts started to get things from the travelers. I don't know why this graduation thing is still being held between the students, but if the director of Lycan School finds out he'll have a heart attack for sure." Johnny said.

"I see. Wait, what? You mean, the ghosts **steal** from humans every year?" Danny asked worried. He wasn't liking this.

"No, no. When they appeared in front of the humans, even the men screamed like little girls and ran away dropping something. They kinda…abandon some of their belongings because they're scared of us."

Daniel sighed as they flew. They heard about how human's kingdoms were fortifying themselves against ghosts and because of that, the two ghosts decided to keep away from any place that seemed dangerous for them. However, they also were unaware where to go exactly. None of them had ever left the Dead Forest before and they were at their summer break, so they didn't have to worry about school for a while.

Johnny had also other intentions besides getting an object from a human. He turned to the hybrid and said: "Danny, can I talk with you for a minute?" Johnny asked the hybrid.

"What is it?"

"Well, you're already fourteen years old and so is my sister. I mean, have you made any plans for the future? The two of you get along really well for as far as I can remember. I think my sister would like having you as her husband and I already see you as a brother. So, what do you say?"

Danny immediately stopped flying surprised, turning visible by the sudden question. "What?"

Johnny stopped as he also turned visible. With a grin he said: "Don't tell me you haven't even started thinking about the future. Don't you want to have kids and a wife that loves you?"

"Y-yes. But I never gave it much thought, though. How about you?"

Johnny smiled prideful as he said: "I've already asked Kitty in marriage and she said yes! We're engaged now and our wedding will be quite soon. I'll announce it to my parents when Kitty and her family come over next week for dinner."

"Congratulations!" Danny said to him truthfully.

"Thanks. But don't change the subject. Ember doesn't know many boys and, honestly, I wouldn't like her to get married with someone I don't know or don't like. That's why I prefer that the person to marry her is you. You both like each other, right?"

"Yes, but I don't know…" the hybrid trailed off. He wasn't sure if he wanted to marry his friend, but it wasn't like he thought little of her. Quite the contrary, he knew that he wouldn't be sad if he married her, but he wished he could marry someone he truly loved like his father did. "Can I think about it?"

"Sure. You still have time. I've overheard mom and dad talking about to whom Ember was going to get married. They also agreed that she should have a husband that treats her the way she deserves and also one that she likes too." The older ghost replied.

Danny was silent and noticing that, Johnny then told him to not worry so much. "Sorry. I guess I dropped this subject a little bit too soon for you, but you should start considering it now, you know. But enough of this. Let's resume our search."

Then the two turned invisible again and continued flying until they saw two cloaked figures riding a horse each.

"Hey, Sam. Don't you think we went a little too far? Shouldn't we head back?" said Tucker.

The girl sighed. She was really enjoying herself out there. She wanted to run away, but her father would send the entire army to get her back. "Alright. Let's go…"

But then she was surprised to hear a male voice saying: "Hey, you under the cowl. Mind if I have that cloak you're hiding under?"

The two humans were startled and Sam quickly demanded looking around trying to figure it out who had said that: "Who's there. Show yourself!"

Johnny turned visible while floating in front of Sam. "Demanding, aren't you? I'm just asking nicely in case you don't need it anymore. You don't have to if you don't want to."

Tucker's jaw fell as he saw that tall figure floating right in front of them: "G-gho-GHO-"

"Ghost? Yes. Yes, I am." Johnny said.

Tucker resisted the urge not to panic and told his friend quickly: "Let's get out of here, before he kills us!"

"What?" said another voice whose owner turned visible outraged by what the boy had just said. "We would never do such a vile thing. Come on Johnny. This is a huge waste of time. Take some grass and claim it belonged to the garden of a human."

"But that it would be way too simple!" the older ghost countered.

Tucker was at the verge of running away, but he held himself, because he would never abandon his friend. He made his horse approach Sam's and he grabbed her arm and told her sternly: "Let's go already, Sam!"

"Wait!" Sam told him as she turned back to watch the two ghosts. It truly fascinated her. She had heard about them before. She was told that they were vile creatures responsible for several problems and even for the death of King Irongrip's daughter. She wasn't told of her own father suspicions of what truly happened that night.

She also was very curious to know why that ghost wanted her cloak. It was just a piece of dull gray clothing that she used to hide her own identity as she escaped from her kingdom. The princess also looked with attention to the other boy, who had snow white hair. He seemed to be a boy around her age. The stories she had heard told that ghosts weren't anything like the humans and those two clearly proved that wrong.

"Why do you want this piece of fabric?" She asked.

"You can't be serious! Let's run while they're busy." Tucker pleaded.

Danny and Johnny stopped arguing as their attention went back to the humans. "Well, it's just a tradition of my school that before we graduate we need to bring there something that belonged to a human. If it's not the cloak, don't you have anything you don't desire anymore? We would like to avoid the big towns. You people would hunt us for no reason."

"No reason? As far as I'm concerned you organized a plot to send some kind of ghost birds to my kingdom and even were the responsible for the death of Madeline Irongrip." Sam said not intimidated by the spectral beings in front of her.

"Sam, don't anger them, I beg you!" Tucker whispered to her.

"Hey, Danny, isn't that the name of your…" Johnny started only to be cut off by his friend.

"Lies!" Danny said out loud offended. "How dare you say such thing! My mother died of an illness and you mercilessly killed scouts for your own pleasure!"

With that last statement, Danny had repeated what was spread by King Pariah Dark who really believed that his scouts were killed for the humans' idea of fun.

"Wait, what? Your…**MOTHER?**" Tucker said in disbelief.

"Yes, my mother. You're the ones who hunt us for no reason and now why are you making up lies about my mother?" Danny said clenching his fists.

"Wait a moment…What were you told about what happened to your mother?" Sam asked curious.

Danny stared daggers at her for a while, but answered anyway: "My mother was a very gentle person who died of an illness some time after she gave birth to me. Now tell me. What sick lies were you told?"

"I was told that a ghost poisoned her mind and because of that she turned against her own father and because of that she was killed by King Raymond Irongrip."

"Another lie. My grandfather was no king and was long dead before my father met my mother." Danny said. He did not know that Vlad had hid from him that his mother was a princess from a human kingdom and also anything about his grandfather.

Sam blinked for a while and said: "I'm sorry to inform you but he really is a king and is still alive."

Danny just stared at her for a while not really believing in her words. "Let's go, Johnny, I don't want to be near them and their lies anymore."

"I'm not lying! If you don't believe me, go check the kingdom Amikeco Parko yourself. You'll see I'm not telling a single lie!" Sam said offended. She also was careful not to bring her status in that conversation she didn't want to be tracked back and she also didn't like to command people just because of her title.

"Right. You know that kingdoms are death traps for us!" Johnny interfered not liking where that conversation was heading to. He really hoped these two humans would run away scared and drop something Johnny could take, but now he gave up on that plan and just wanted to go back home and follow Danny's advice and take grass or something.

"How else do you expect me to prove I'm right?" Sam asked crossing her arms. Then she added: "Why don't you go ask your father about him. I'm sure he knows the truth and is hiding it from you. I didn't even know humans and ghosts could have children, I mean."

"My father never lied to me! Let's go Johnny this isn't worthy of our time!" Danny said.

"I guess you're right, Danny." The older ghost said turning invisible.

Before the hybrid did the same thing, he then said to his friend: "Wait, Johnny. Before we go, I need to know something."

He then turned to the girl, and with a disapproving frown, said with a huff: "You think you are so bold in your lies. Would you dare to be so bold to tell us the truth about your name, then? I heard your friend there calling you 'Sam'. That must be a lie, too. Isn't that a boy's name?"

Sam scoffed and said: "'Sam" is just a nickname that only my good friends can call me. My name is Samantha Mason and this is Tucker Foley."

Danny eyed her suspiciously before saying: "Alright, when I get proof that you lied, I'll be sure to tell you, **Sam**!" He then abruptly turned invisible and headed back to the Dead Forest with Johnny following closely.

"Are they gone?" Tucker said fearfully. But then he asked his friend: "Are you crazy? Why did you give our names like that? Now they can track us!"

"Don't panic so much, Tucker. If they really meant harm they would have done it…" She said thoughtfully as she turned her horse back and started guiding it back to her kingdom.

Tucker followed her and noticed her expression under the cowl of her cloak. "I know that face. What are you thinking?"

"It's just…That ghost seemed to be telling the truth. I mean, his father must have told him a complete different side of the facts…I know that he lied to his son about King Raymond, but the rest maybe he didn't. Maybe this whole quarrel between humans and ghosts is nothing but a misunderstanding…"

"There you go again, Sam. Just try to be thankful our heads are still attached to our necks! Let's just forget what just happened and return home." Tucker said.

But Princess Samantha wasn't about to let go of that matter.

End of chapter 14

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. I love to read your comments.


	15. Confrontation part 2

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott and Shaddow the Spirit for your reviews.

* * *

As Danny flew with Johnny, now both visible, inside of the Dead Forest. None of them said anything. At least Danny didn't. Johnny tried to take his friend's mind off what had just happened, but the hybrid didn't reply.

The older ghost shrugged for receiving a cold shoulder from him, but he couldn't exactly blame him for that. All he knew about Danny's family was what his father, Skulker, had told him.

Danny didn't talk much about his mother. Not that he had anything to say. Daniel never met her. Even Vlad didn't go in much details about his relationship with her. As far as Vlad was concerned, it would be dangerous for the boy to know that he had family on his mother's side, so he told Danny that they were all dead.

It was because of that what Princess Samantha had told him infuriated the teen. He didn't like the way she talked about his mother and his grandfather. However even he had to admit there was some truth in her words. She had never met him before, so how would she know about his mother and grandfather's name. It made no sense.

The teen knew she had to be wrong somehow. Danny was sure that his father wouldn't lie to him. The hybrid wondered if the human youth were told a bunch of lies so they would hate the ghosts and continue with their senseless hatred towards the ghosts.

"Hey, Johnny. I have to go home for now. There's something I want to talk to him." the younger ghost said.

"Sure. But, Danny, try not to dwell much into what she said. I mean how can she say weird stuff like that with a straight face?" Johnny answered.

"Maybe it's all part of a human plan to make their kids hate us or something. I want to tell my dad and also my uncle about that. They're both at home now. Uncle Eric will probably find this information useful. After all if he knows what the humans are saying, he can tell King Pariah about it and they can formulate a plan to stop this nonsense." Danny replied stopping in mid-air and turning visible.

Johnny also stopped and put his hand over Danny's shoulder. "Just try not to worry so much, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks. See you later." Danny said before flying straight to his home.

Johnny also flew back to his home. He wanted to ask his father about what the human girl had said.

When Danny arrived home, he was greeted by Teresa who asked him if he had fun and also if he was hungry. However the boy immediately asked where his father and uncle were. He also said that he wanted to speak with them as soon as possible.

The old ghost looked at the boy fully knowing that something was troubling him. She wondered what could have happened in such a short time. When the boy left home, he was cheerful and now he was like someone's life were at steak.

"Your father and uncle are at the library on the first floor. They're discussing something, so I think it would be better if you wai…" but the babysitter couldn't finish her sentence.

Danny said "Thanks" and bolted flying towards the library. '_I just hope it's nothing serious…'_ she thought.

Vlad and Eric, who was still wearing his armor with the exception of the helmet, which was over one table, were truly discussing. Fright knight was telling his brother that King Pariah had prepared everything for the invasion and it was going to happen quite soon. He also told him to keep his son in an even lower profile, so he doesn't get caught in the mess.

Then they suddenly heard someone phasing through the door. "Father? I'm sorry for interrupting your conversation, but I would like to inform you and uncle Eric of something."

Vlad look curious at the boy. "What is it, my boy? Shouldn't you be with Johnny now?"

"Yes, but Johnny took me to fulfill some kind of werid tradition of Lycan School's seniors where they should gather at least one thing that belonged to a human you see…"

"WHAT!" shouted Fright Knight. "They still hold this stupid tradition at a time like this? I'll address to the principal immediately so they can put an end to this nonsense." Then after realizing something, he continued: "Wait a moment…you LEFT the Dead Forest with Johnny? Vlad, I can't believe you didn't tell him not to leave this place."

Danny's father frowned deeply as he replied: "But I did. **Several** times!" Crossing his arms, the duke continued: "I don't care if you were with Johnny. I'm highly disappointed at you, Daniel. I can't believe you disobeyed me like that!"

The hybrid tried to defend himself. "But we didn't even come close of a town. We just encountered two travelers. Johnny expected them go running from us and drop something."

"You even interacted with humans! Vlad, if you don't discipline your child, I think I'll have to do it. This kind of attitude cannot be allowed when king Pariah is about to unleash an attack against the humans. What if he had gotten himself captured? They could try use him as a shield or even do sick experiments on him!" Fright Knight growled.

"I know I shouldn't have…I'm really sorry…" the teen said.

"Apologizes won't take you off of your punishment, Daniel." Vlad said glaring at his son.

The boy sighed troubled. He wondered how his father would punish him for doing that. He knew that he shouldn't have gone with Johnny. But then he remembered why he had stormed into the room to begin with.

"Father, may I say something before anything else. It's about what happened between us and those humans." The hybrid said looking down.

"Yes, you may, but I hope you two didn't do anything that you might regret." Vlad said sternly.

"No, we just talked. Thing is that they said weird things about…mom…" The boy started slowly raising his look to his father and uncle whose eyes were widened.

"What?" Vlad said confused.

The boy swallowed before continuing: "They said something about a ghost corrupting her and also that grandfather Raymond was a king and still alive. At first I thought it was just a merely coincidence of names, but they had the same surnames. Why did they say you corrupted mom? It's stupid. It's even stupider for them to say that grandfather Raymond is still alive…"

Vlad was shocked at hearing this. He had wondered when his sonw as still a baby if he should tell his mother's true surname or not. But he dismissed the idea for two reasons: the could see her surname on the grave and also he never thought the boy would get in contact with any human who knew King Raymond.

Eric was equally shocked. He looked at his brother for him to say anything, but Vlad was taken back by that and he honestly had nothing to say to his son.

Danny did find that sudden silence quite disturbing, but then something finally hit the boy: "Father, isn't a king someone who is always making public appearances and such? Are there two Raymond Irongrips? Is he a relative of mom? Is it some kind of hoax? But why would they use his name?"

"Yes, son. I-It's a hoax." Vlad finally spoke using the chance given by his son. "Human are strange. They couldn't accept the love between me and your mother. They spread lies just to make us look bad at the eyes of those who never met us."

The boy pondered about that for a bit and then continued: "But father, if this so-called King Raymond is a fraud, why are people following someone who doesn't even have royal blood. If he openly uses my grandfather's full name, why people even believe in him. He was no king when alive."

The problem with lies is that, when caught by its net, there are only two options: tell the truth and finally be freed of it or squirm and make yourself even more attached to it and wait for the spider to come. Vlad, sadly, chose the second option.

"You see, son. I didn't know much about your family's bloodlines. Maybe her father was the successor of the throne because he had noble blood and the actual king had no child, so he would have been chosen to be the king. Yes. They took advantage of that and placed an imposter who pretends to be your grandfather!" Vlad said relieved that he could think of something in the end.

Fright Knight crossed his arms and gave a heavy sigh as he saw his brother giving so much poor excuses for what the boy had just said. The general was highly against hiding the boy's mother's true past from him. He knew, from experience, that no secret remained buried forever and knowing the truth from a total stranger was disastrous. Eric even heard the boy making an "Oh" sound completely believing in what his father had just told him.

"But shouldn't we make them pay for doing this to grandfather Raymond. They're using his name and that wrong!" the boy said.

"No, Daniel. You should never get near of any human city. Do you hear me? I'll not tolerate if you disobey me. The humans are going be dealt with…" Vlad said.

"This is just plain stupid, you know. I think you should just tell the kid the truth to end with this, Vlad. It's no use hiding it anymore. Daniel is no kid anymore. If he gives a little bit of thinking, and I know he will, he'll notice the flaws of what you said. I remember clearly that you told Daniel that Madeline was a lesser noble, how can someone of her 'status' have a father who would be the legit successor of the throne. Huh?" Fright knight said.

"That's right…" Danny said. "But what truth is it? I don't understand."

"Eric! You have no right!" Vlad growled at him. Daniel had believed in what Vlad had just said and the parent was furious at his brother opening his mouth like that. Fright Knight never had a child in his life and always butted in telling Vlad how to raise his kid. Fright Knight had suggested several times that Vlad told the truth to Daniel while he was still young so he could grow up knowing how twisted the humans were. King Raymond ordered the death of his own daughter, the boy's mother. In the general's eyes, that's not something anyone should be hiding from the boy. Besides, Eric believed that Danny would now have the maturity to not do anything stupid.

"What's going on here?" The boy said really confused not getting what was going on between his father and uncle.

Fright night turned his eyes from his brother to his nephew: "The truth, Daniel, that your grandfather is indeed a king, he's alive and he is the real responsible for your mother's death."

* * *

One week ago, at the Ghost King's castle, Wolfgang summoned an audience to see His Majesty, King Pariah Dark, to show him what he had discovered. The lycanthrope finally managed to get a very good amount of arsenic over the years and he found a good way of using it to get the humans without getting near of the cities and the humans wouldn't even suspect of the ghosts.

Wolfgang was also delighted to see his son doing the impossible to pretend to be happily married with Jadiwiga. It amused him to see his son forcing a smile. He wondered how long would it take until Jadiwiga notice that. Truth to be told, he wants for their marriage to work, because it brought Wolfgang and Nicholas closer. The old silver lycanthrope liked prestige and have important people to owe him favors and such.

When the old lycanthrope was at the throne room, Pariah was all alone. Wolfgang kneeled respectfully and only raised when the ghost king gave him permission to do so. He didn't want to act too bold especially when he was so close of earning the king's eternal gratitude.

"So, did you finally finish your research? I hope you have. I grow tired of waiting to smash the humans as the bugs they are!" Pariah Dark said.

The werewolf swallowed dry as he did the best to not lose his composure. "Yes, I have, your majesty. I've gathered enough arsenic to kill thousands of humans and also a good way to spread it."

"Really? What is it?" said the king now grinning.

Seeing the pleased face of the ghost king, Wolfgang became more relaxed. "I've discovered a river that passes right inside of one of the human kingdoms who are fortifying themselves against us. All we have to do is to throw the arsenic inside of the river and let them drink the poisoned water. They won't even know we were the ones responsible for this. I also watched from afar the other two kingdoms, they gather water of river and some lakes, outside of their kingdoms, it'll be even easier to do the same thing with them, milord."

"Yes. I like this idea. Humans need to drink water everyday, so it'll be a sure victory. You really are a genius, Wolfgang." Pariah praised him.

"Your words are too kind, your majesty." Replied the lycanthrope.

"Your reward shall be three times your weight in gold and also you'll become one of my counselors!" after a brief pause, the ghost king continued: "Finally the humans are going to pay for everything!" King Pariah said darkly.

End of chapter 15

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. I love to read your comments.


	16. The Madness of War part 1

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott and Kiomori for your reviews.

* * *

"Your grandfather, King Raymond, is the true one responsible for your mother's death, Daniel." Fright Knight said solemnly.

The teen gave a step back not believing in what he had just heard. He wanted to doubt his own ears, but his father's actions only confirmed his uncle's story.

Vlad quickly turned to his brother and grabbed him by the collar. And snarled: "You had no right!" then he used his full strength to push his brother against a wall and repeated: "You had **no** right, Eric!" He even charged some red spectral energy on his hands.

Fright Knight looked at it as if his brother was no big threat. The general had let his brother have a gratuitous "first punch" because he expected something like that might happen. But he wasn't going to let himself be beaten. The older ghost was about to draw his sword, when he heard his nephew shout.

"FATHER, STOP!" the hybrid yelled looking frightened.

Vlad's angry eyes melted when he saw his confused son staring at that situation. The duke made the energy from his fists disappear and gave a step towards Danny who gave a step back.

"Is that true? Please tell me uncle was lying, father. Please!" Danny said not really wanting to believe in what he had just heard.

As much as Vlad would like to confirm what his son had asked him to, part of his being couldn't keep the lie anymore. It was useless. Vlad knew that his boy was bright and even if he lied again, his son would end up discovering the entire truth one day and the things between the two of them would become much more complicated than it should have been.

In his mind, Vlad apologized to his wife for not being able to keep the promise anymore. "It's true, Daniel…Your grandfather did order your mother's death…"

But before Vlad could continue, the teen clenched his fists and asked outraged: "So, all this time you **lied** to me? What else is a lie, father? Did you corrupt my mother as they said as well? I…don't know what is true anymore. I can't believe you lied to me!"

This time it was Vlad who felt outraged: "Do not **dare** to accuse me of that, Daniel! Your grandfather, King Raymond, is a vile man who didn't even think twice about killing his own daughter just because she fell in love with me. He almost even got to kill you! I wanted to tell you the truth from the beginning, but your mother begged me before she died to keep the truth from you because she didn't want you to hate humans!"

Danny couldn't accept that his own grandfather could be so cruel. He was also angry because his father lied to him for so many years. He couldn't think straight. The teen wondered how many people knew about this. He was sure that at least his grandparents, James and Christine, also knew about it. The teen had that hunch because even his uncle knew about it.

"I'm sorry, father. I shouldn't have said that…But why? Why would he do that? Why would my own grandfather kill his daughter, my mother?" Danny asked.

Vlad's gaze softened a bit as he answered: "Your grandfather has a strong prejudice against ghosts. The same way some ghosts have prejudice against humans. I guess he would rather see his daughter dead…I loath him for what he did. But I don't want you to let it consume you…That's why I, no, we decided to hide it from you. I'm sorry for hiding this from you, but we all did it for your own sake."

The boy wanted to clear his head and think better about everything. He was so confused. His world went upside down in a matter of a few hours. The teen just said: "May I go to my room, Father…" He really needed some time alone.

"Yes." Vlad said looking at his son leaving the room. He thought it would be better if he let his son think about it for a while. He didn't want his son to discover the truth, at least not like that.

"Looks like you finally decided to man up and tell your son yourself the truth. I thought I would be the one to have to do all the job here." Fright Knight said.

Vlad's eyes flashed even brighter as he snarled: "This is all your fault! Once this matter settles down, I shall deal with you! Now leave!"

Then Vlad bolted out of the library not caring about any remark Eric might have. The duke feared he might lose his head if he heard another of his brother remarks. Vlad hated how self-righteous his brother was. Vlad could only hope it would all end soon.

* * *

In his room, Daniel was remembering everything odd that happened in his life. Everytime he tried to ask about his mother's side of the family, everyone was evasive and ended up changing the subject.

It frustrated the teen because he didn't realize something was wrong before. He was angry because they all lied to him, but he couldn't hate them for that. The boy wondered if that was one of those 'you'll thank me when you're older' kind of thing.

But he still couldn't believe that someone of his own flesh and blood would be capable of that. He didn't understand why so much hatred towards ghosts. Then he remembered what he said about his father when at the peak of his anger. The teen felt great sorrow for his words.

He also tried to discover what his grandfather has been doing all this time. Did he even knew know that his grandson was alive? Did he even care for a matter of fact? These questions plagued the boy's mind.

There was only one way for the boy to discover the truth for once and for all. And he ready to do so. He was glad for having a human half so he could blend among humans.

The teen then turned invisible and intangible and flew outside of his home in search of the place where his father said his mother was from: Amikeco Parko. It wasn't too far from there, which the teen was thankful for. But he also hoped his father didn't lie about that as well. He also hoped to come back before his father realized he was gone.

* * *

King Raymond's army was at the entrance of the Dead Forest. He had used Jack Fenton's help to build up the army with anti-ghost armor and weapons among other things. The man even invented a small bomb using Bloody Blossoms that, in theory, was to choke ghosts with the cloud it created.

There was about two thousand soldiers armed to their teeth to invade the Dead Forest. King Raymond was no fool in attempting to send his entire army and leave his kingdom unprotected. He didn't want to allow what happened to his son-in-law's kingdom to happen with his.

King William's kingdom, Malnova Pordo, suffered an unusual attack. Several people in the kingdom started dying without any reason. There was a huge panic among the villagers and even soldiers. The feared it was some kind of plague. Uncountable people died everyday and they found no reason for that macabre happening. That was until Jack Fenton was sent there to investigate.

Spite of his hatred towards King William, King Raymond suspected it might be something to do with ghosts. Truth to be told, the old king was quite paranoid. He even thought that when the windows of his own chambers slammed during a windy night, it was ghost's fault.

Jack was sent there two days ago and after examining everyone and the survivors, he decided to check their food and water supply. He was shocked to detect that there was something odd with the water from the river which crossed the middle of Malnova Pordo.

The big scientist discovered poison in the water. Once he discovered that he reported it immediately to both kings, Raymond and William. Now Raymond Irongrip was even more sure that it was the doing of ghosts and rubbed it on the face of his son-in-law who didn't like it one bit.

King William suspected that it was King Raymond's doing. It all seemed way too suspicious for him. In King Baxter's mind, the ghosts had no reason to attack him like that, but King Raymond had. The scientist was even sent by him.

King William swore revenge silently against his father-in-law and he intended to retaliate quite soon. He knew the perfect moment to strike him. King Raymond bragged how he intended to send his army against the Dead Forest and king William was to use that opportunity to attack his kingdom when they didn't have much soldiers to protect Amikeco Parko.

End of chapter 16

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. I love to read your comments.


	17. The Madness of War part 2

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott and DaughterofPoseidon32498 for your reviews.

* * *

Danny, while invisible, flew towards the human territory in hope to find a human kingdom. He never went out of the Dead Forest before so he had to admit he was flying blindly. He was so hurried to leave the place that he failed to spot the soldiers entering into the Dead Forest.

The hybrid flew for hours until he finally spotted a kingdom in the horizon. He flew faster and he saw a huge sign where it was written "Kingdom of Amikeco Park". The boy wanted to get nearer, but he couldn't. He was feeling dizzy because of the smell of the Bloody Blossoms nearby.

Danny wasn't aware that it was the flowers that gave him that feeling, but he knew that the humans were creating stuff to fight against ghosts. So he assumed that he his sudden condition was probably one of those things. But even then he knew that he didn't like to not know what exactly the humans were using to make him feel like that.

The boy saw a man driving a cart full of hay being pulled by two horses. He saw that as his chance do get inside of the city and he used that chance. He went inside of the hay and turned human inside of it. Fortunately nobody saw the flash of light that accompanied his transformation.

The boy stood still as he traveled hoping to not get caught. When the cart arrived at the entrance of the kingdom, the guards examined the man and also the cart. While one guard examined the man, the other checked the cart.

He looked under it and then drew his sword and stabbed the pile of hay a few times to check if there was anyone hiding inside of it. The weapon barely missed the boy's neck in one of the strikes.

Danny paled when he saw the blade getting really close to him. The hybrid wondered if they had discovered him. But he relaxed a bit when he overheard the guards saying that the cart was clean and that the man could proceed inside of the city.

When the cart entered the city, Danny waited for it to stop before he could make any decision. It took about one hour until the man reached the place where he was supposed to deliver all that hay. It was at the royal stables. The hay was supposed to be given for the horses to eat.

The boy turned into his ghost self and when he left the safety of the not-so-pleasant smell of the cart, he nearly threw up. He went to a desert spot as fast as he could and quickly turned into his human self and then panted hard for air. The Bloody Blossoms didn't affect him while in his human half so it was a huge relief for him. Danny realized that if he wanted to meet his grandfather he would have to do it in his most fragile form.

* * *

Only a few hours had passed since Sam had first encountered the strange Ghost Boy. And she had barely made back at her own kingdom in time. She was worried that someone would miss her and Tucker, but seemingly nobody missed them while they were out.

She would be relieved in any other occasion. But she was frustrated for two reasons. The first one was that her father had just received a summoning from King Raymond to Amikeco Parko and now they had to move again. The second thing that bothered her was what Danny had told her. As far as she heard about ghosts, they struck first and asked no questions later. The two ghosts were nothing like that. But it was the younger ghost who called Madeline Irongrip his mother that called her attention the most.

He seemed totally clueless about what the humans said about what happened to the princess of Amikeco Parko. Samantha Manson wondered what could be behind all that. She knew that one of the sides was a big and fat liar.

She had met the ghost boy for the first time that day and she caught him by surprise with that. There was no way he could have come up with such lie in so little time. So, for the girl, there was only one explanation: There was something King Raymond was hiding. She intended to discover the truth. It would be disastrous to have such friction with the ghosts just because of a misunderstanding.

Thankfully, Sam saw an opportunity to do so. Her parents were taking her to Amikeco Parko because of a invitation of King Raymond. They decided to bring her along because they wanted her to get used with political meetings, she had to learn how to be patient. They knew that, after the weeding, Dash would be the one who would handle the political affairs of royalty, but she couldn't always fidget and move around while he did so.

For Sam, the major downside of it was that she wasn't allowed to bring Tucker long with her for the visit. Her parents liked the boy and thought he was a good influence for their daughter, but that didn't mean they would bring him around because the two spent a good amount of time together. The parents feared the two might end up falling in love and do something stupid. They knew how teenagers were like.

Sam's parents wondered if it had anything to do with Jack Fenton, because he had started to help King Raymond quite a lot with anti-ghost gadgets.

Hours later, they finally arrived at Amikco Parko, completely unaware that Amikeco Parko was about to become a bloody stage.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the werewolf village, Alphonse went to his father's house alone. He didn't want to, but he knew his father and as soon as he got over whatever Wolfgang wanted to say the best it would be for him.

Alphonse had to put up with Wulf's sister, Jadiwiga, for seven years and it seemed already like an eternity. He was tired of pretending 24/7 that he loved her and he himself wasn't sure how could she even buy his act. The only experience the silver werewolf had with love was from stories he had read from story books. He merely repeated what he read there. How the men acted towards their beloveds and such.

The worst part was that Jadiwiga was starting to talk about having children. Alphonse managed to hold her desire for a bit by saying that they were still two too young for that. But this was the only thing he couldn't convince his wife.

When the silver ghost werewolf was inside of his father's house, his headache only increased as he waited, while sitting on a chair, for his father to appear in the living room. Wolfgang dismissed all the servants from the room so he could gloat to his son.

"What is it, father? Can you make it fast?" Alphonse said.

Wolfgang chuckled as he replied: "Of course I'll make it brief. You have a **wife** to return to, isn't it?"

The younger lycanthrope growled at that for Wolfgang's amusement. "I think you might want to keep that bad humor to yourself. You don't want to end up unleashing it against you beloved wife, am I right?"

Alphonse sighed heavily not liking that conversation already. "Did you call me here only to tell me this?"

"Of course not, son. I'm here to tell you I've gained King Pariah's trust thanks to my brilliant mind. I didn't need your help to achieve that!"

"Oh, geez. You finally started walking with your own two legs. Congratulations!" Alphponse replied sarcastically. He would never forget how his father used him to even get near the king in first place.

Wolfgang interpreted that as jealousy. He didn't know that Alphonse's reasons to obtain knowledge weren't for self promotion, but for the pleasure of uncovering the secrets of nature and also use that to help the ghost werewolf's kind to fortify themselves. Alphonse wanted the werewolf village to be its own independent small country, but he threw his ideals out of the window after he married Jadiwiga.

The older werewolf then said: "You may be wondering what I had come up to gain such honorable thing."

'_No, I don't and I don't give a damn._' Alphonse replied in his mind too bored to even speak that out loud.

Not waiting for his son to voice his thoughts, Wolfgang continued: "I've researched and I've come up with a plan to kill the humans as the insects as they are. I've found a way to poison them!"

Alphonse raised an eyebrow. "Poison? Really? Don't you think it would have been more subtle to shoot an ecto-beam on their faces during daylight?"

"Your jealousy is quite amusing, son. I've thrown arsenic in a river that crosses a human kingdom. Fortunately, I didn't have to go that long to throw it in. The river starts here in the Dead Forest, so it was a quite easy task."

"Are you mad?" Alphonse said getting up of the chair in alarm.

"Why the sudden reaction? Arsenic doesn't harm us ghosts even in large doses like the one I've thrown in the water."

"You're an IDIOT! It may not harm us, but it'll harm the forest!" Alphonse replied.

"They're just plants. Why do you even care? It's not like we'll need to hide in this forest after we've dealt with the humans. King Pariah will rule even the human lands."

Alphonse didn't care much about the forest either. He was more infuriated because of his father's recklessness. It was no secret that such act will have serious repercussions in all Dead Forest ecosystem and…

It was then that Alphonse started to shiver in pure fear. '_If that weird tree from the Cave of Beginning gets water from the river too, then…_'

Alphonse then bolted from his father's house, leaving a very confused Wolfgang looking at his son as he left the house.

* * *

Spectra was at the Royal chambers smiling in delight. She had waited seven years to put her plan into action. She had nurtured a "relationship" with Bertrand for all that time.

The shape-shifter truly believed that Queen Spectra was in love with him. He had proposed for her to run away with him so they could live happily away from everybody. But Penelope Spectra had other plans for him.

She wanted him to murder Pariah Dark. It was no easy task. King Pariah was a very powerful ghost, but she explained how Bertrand should proceed to get him. She wanted her husband dead so then she could claim that Bertrand was the murderer of the king and have him executed. Then she could become the very first single queen of the entire ghost kingdom. Sure she new that not everybody would be fond of listening to the orders of a woman, but she could make herself to be listened.

Spectra had instructed Bertrand to follow the king around disguised as an insignificant fly. The shape-shifter was ready to execute the plan he considered brilliant in order to live with his beloved.

* * *

When the King was all alone inside of a chamber where he usually thought about his war plans, Bertrand flew to the back of his neck and turned into a huge snake. He first wrapped around his body and use the surprise attack to use his fangs to remove the crown from the King to weaken his powers.

"What's the meaning of this?" Roared Pariah Dark outraged by a ghost attacking him.

Before Pariah could react, Bertrand then bit the king on his neck injecting as much poison as he could. However, King Pariah finally recovered from the assault and used his brute strength to free himself from the grip.

Bertrand then turned into a small fly again and flew towards the King's right hand where he kept his Ring of Rage. King Pariah tried to hit the now diminutive ghosts with the palm of his hand, but he missed him.

When the shape-shifter got near enough, he turned into a gorilla and quickly grabbed the king's hand and took off his ring, throwing it away. Spectra had told him to get both ring and crown and take them to her and leave the King to suffer from the effects of the poison. But Bertrand wanted to finish the obstacle of his love with his own bare hands.

The ghost 'animal' was about to punch Pariah when the king used his left hand to hold Bertrand's right hook. The poison was already making its damage inside of Ghost King, but he was still quite powerful.

Pariah then kicked Bertrand on his gut sending him to the opposite wall. The shape-shifter turned into a jaguar and leaped towards the king who punched Bertrand even harder on the face.

The Ghost King was sweating and panting from the poison. His vision was getting blurry, so he wanted to finish that quickly so he could get some medical help. The King then took his green mace he always carried on his waist and ran towards the still dazed Bertrand who tried to shape-shift into something small to flee from the attack, but he couldn't do so.

Pariah Dark hit him hard with his spiked mace crushing the now bleeding ghost against the wall. The impact was very strong and made Bertrand turn into his true form as he slowly lost his conscience. The shape-shifter true form was of some kind of green blob with red eyes.

But that didn't make the king have any mercy towards the shape-shifter. As Pariah raised his mace to give the final attack, Bertrand felt a huge sorrow for not being able to stay near of his beloved anymore. The impact made everything turn black to the shape-shifter.

* * *

The army of humans soldiers marched into the depths of the Dead Forest not knowing when or how to expect an attack from the ghosts. They had their orders to kill every ghost on sight, but a blue ghost with black hair and red eyes who was supposed to be the ghost who married Madeline. The King assumed that from what the soldiers who he had ordered to kill the princess had told him.

As the army advanced, they came across with a small ghost village mostly inhabited by pacific ghosts. In one of the houses there was a ghost called Ezekiel, but he was mostly known as the "Box Ghost". He lived with his wife, Sandra, also known as the "Lunch Lady" because of her cooking. Both were the owners of a small inn.

Nobody of the village could have foreseen what happened next. First many soldiers appeared out of nowhere throwing bags that when they hit the ground a huge red cloud rose from them and turned all ghosts into weaklings. They couldn't even walk, much less turn invisible or even fly.

They all coughed violently so they couldn't fight back ass the army advanced and started to use their weapons to slay the ghosts. Even those from afar who got scared and tried to flee weren't spared. There were archers among the humans who shot arrows towards them. Men, women and children were killed in the massacre as if they were nothing but beasts.

Fortunately, some managed to escape, among them there was the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady. They all flew as fast as they could away from that horrible scenario. They wanted to warn the others about what had just happened. They prayed they weren't too late.

End of chapter 17

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. I love to read your comments.


	18. The Madness of War part 3

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan and Christopher Scott for your reviews.

5)Sorry about the huge delay. Happy New year for everyone.

* * *

Danny was doing his best to not be spotted. He had to resort to use invisibility several times while human, but everytime he summoned his ghost powers he felt ill. In spite of this, he still had to force himself to become invisible at times so he wouldn't be seen.

Hours were spent in several attempts of going inside of the castle. The biggest problem was that the walls of the castle were all covered in ectorranium and he couldn't phase through it. He had no ladder to climb to an open window and he didn't feel confident in flying while remaining invisible in such a weakened state. He placed his right hand over his mouth to hold back his anxiety to throw up. It didn't feel as bad as if he were in his ghost side, so it was almost bearable for him. It was dawn by the time Danny started to hear that weird annoying voice again, telling him to go back to the Dead Forest.

The hybrid told it to shut up, but the voice didn't stop for one second. It was hard to focus with that, but he tried his hardest to ignore it.

Then he finally saw his chance. The doors of the back of the castle suddenly opened and a couple of maids went out of it. Danny, still invisible, saw that chance and stormed into the castle, passing between the two maids who felt something bumping against them. They looked very puzzled at that and wondered what it was.

Inside of the castle, he noticed that the smell of the Bloody Blossoms were much weaker and that was a huge relief for him. He didn't know that his grandmother, Teresa had grown sick of the smell inside of the castle, so she asked her husband to remove at least the flowers inside of it. King Raymond was also very displeased with the smell, so he ended up agreeing with that. He really doubted any ghost would come so far inside of the castle anyway.

Because of that, it became easier for Danny to walk there while invisible, but the castle walls were all green because of the ectorranium coating. Its glow made Danny shiver. His ghostly instincts were telling him that the place was bad news for him, but he wasn't going to back out.

The boy spent a good amount of time trying to find his grandfather. He knew that asking for directions was out of question. So, basically, he walked randomly. The boy passed by a door with two guards near it, but he halted when he heard someone saying on the other side of it: "Greetings, Your Majesty. I would like to inform you that King Mason has arrived."

"Very well. Bring them here." replied a male voice.

The hybrid immediately thought he had found his grandfather. When he tried to phase through the door he bumped against it, making the two guards look at it puzzled. They couldn't see the teen and they couldn't say what had just slammed against the door. They just assumed it had been a strong wind or someone, but they didn't feel a thing. Luckily for the boy, they decided to ignore it.

The doors were coated with ectorranium as well, so he couldn't just phase through it. The boy was glad that the two guards didn't mind his little attempt to get in the room. He then decided to wait until the doors were open, after all his grandfather was going to be visited. But the boy was sure he had heard the name 'Mason' before, but he couldn't remember exactly where.

Finally, the door opened for King Raymond's servant to leave, but since the boy was distracted thinking about where he heard that 'Manson' name before, he didn't get the time to sneak into the room. So, he decided to wait until his next opportunity.

* * *

In the King Pariah's castle, the king used all his strength to walk to someone to help him. He wanted to kill the responsible for the attempt against his life. He doubted that it was the action of one ghost only.

He walked through the halls and roared for someone to appear and help him. His voice echoed through the castle and many of his servants appeared. They were shocked to see their king in such a wounded state and when they asked him about what had happened, King Pariah ordered them to shut up and take him to his personal doctor and also to summon his counselors and general.

Some of the servants quickly went to obey the king's orders while others stayed and helped him to walk to his personal chambers. When they got there, they saw Penelope Spectra lying on the bed humming happily.

However, she suddenly stopped when she saw her husband alive. '_Had Bertrand fail? I can't believe that stupid blob failed with a simple task!_' But then she snapped out of it and started with her façade: "My dear, what happened?" she said as she jumped off her bed, aiding the three servants to lay her husband on his bed.

Seeing her husband in such a fragile state and noticing how he wasn't wearing the Crown of Fire anymore. She then thought she could kill her husband right there. She was going to remove the ring when they were alone and do it quickly.

"Don't just stand there, go bring help!" she said to the servants there who were about to do as they were told until they heard their king say.

"No, I've already sent others to do it. The three of you stay! I don't why that idiot of Bertrand decided to betray me, but I know he's not smart enough to just do this kind of thing on his own. Whoever plotted against me might try come after me again. You'll stay here and protect me until my general and some guards arrive!" The king snarled, still pissed off that he let his guard down so easily. But he was even angrier because fellow ghosts decided to betray him in a time when they all should be against the human race.

Spectra wasn't happy either. She thought she could kill her husband if they were all alone, after all, she could feed off his energy and no doctor would be able to detect her doings and her husband was aware of who tried to kill him, after all Bertrand did some jobs in the past for the king.

Spectra's main problem was that with the three servants' being here, there was no way she could accomplish that. Her plans were in even bigger danger because she was certain that her husband was going to be paranoid. She then decided to lay low, glad that at least her tracks were covered.

* * *

Samantha Mason and her family had arrived in the Amikeco Parko at night. The princess was bored out of her mind. Her parents chit chatted while she only watched the landscape though the window of the royal carriage.

She accompanied her parents through the castle to, what she thought, was going to be a very boring meeting. When she got to the door to the throne room, she didn't notice Danny was there, but the boy noticed her.

Then he remembered where he had heard the 'Mason' name before. It was her surname. He didn't know she was a princess. But then he snapped out of it when the doors were open.

He rushed into the room phasing though Sam and her parents. He found himself at the throne room and he the stared at the couple sitting on fancy red thrones. They were both wearing crowns and Danny's suspicions became clear when the Manson Royal family addressed respectfully to them: "Good evening, King William, Queen Teresa!"

The King and Queen of Amikeco Parko greeted them back. The old man then started telling his business with King Mason: "You see, King Thurston, I summoned you here because we decided to finally declare war against the ghosts! I called you here so you could see for yourself everything I accomplished when you refused to help me with my plans. It won't take long until I have the head of the ghost, who corrupted my youngest daughter, served on a silver plate."

The hybrid cringed at those words. Everything that Sam had told him about his grandfather was true, sadly. Seemingly, his only chance to have a 'civilized' talk with him now was only if he manages to lock himself in a weaponless room with his grandfather

The hybrid was right next to Sam, who wasn't happy either with what the oldest man in the room had just said. '_If ghosts were so vile, so why those two ghosts weren't that scary or even didn't even try hurt me? They even seemed to think they were innocent from everything we accuse them…'_ She then gave a heavy sigh and looked away, to her right side, where Danny was. But she couldn't see him.

Danny noticed that and looked back at Sam for a while and thought: 'She's quite beautiful, but for some reason that pink dress doesn't seem to suit her very well…' but then he slapped his own cheeks, which, fortunately, didn't draw anyone's attention. _'Focus, Danny!_' The boy wanted to stay there and wait until the visitors left so he could have a chance of speaking with his grandfather alone.

However, everyone's attention turned to a soldier, who was holding a spear, burst through the door with a distressed look on his face. "Your Highness, we're under attack!" Said a soldier desperately. That soldier, like the others who were fighting the invading army were using iron-made equipment. Jack's research showed that ectorranium was easily destroyed by iron made weapons therefore, it wasn't useful against other human's weaponry. Because of that King Raymond didn't throw away his army's old weapons and kept them around for emergencies.

"WHAT?" shouted King Raymond getting up of his throne. "Don't tell me ghosts decided to retaliate!"

The soldier swallowed dry before he answered: "No, My King. They're human! They carry the flag of King William's kingdom, Malnova Pordo."

"What? That brat **betrayed** me!" King Raymond roared clenching his fists.

The Mason Royal Family was also aghast by those news. They never expected for King William do such a thing to his own father-in-law and also with them as well. After all, King Thurston agreed to marry his daughter with King William's son!

Even Danny was surprised by that. The hybrid didn't know who this King William was, but he was sure that it was going to jeopardize the boy's plan to talk to his grandfather.

The soldier was still there trembling. He didn't want to be the one to deliver that final message to his king because he was afraid that the old man's wrath would fall upon the messenger, but he decided to tell it quickly because he feared beheading if he hid the following news: "T-There's more, Your Highness. The invading army has already…broken through our defenses."

With that everyone in the room paled.

* * *

Alphonse waited nervously at the spot where the Cave of Beginning was. His impatience was overflowing him. He couldn't wait until he could check if everything was alright.

He sighed in deeper frustration when he remembered that he had locked the door and therefore he couldn't open it unless Daniel helped him. He had rushed there without even considering that. But how could he drag the boy, whom he didn't know that was currently in a human kingdom, without his father realizing it?

There was another thing that bothered him greatly. It was quite late at night already and yet there was no sign of fireflies. He remembered how they have disappeared when he had taken the key, but the gear-like medallion was still in its place. He checked it when he arrived there. So many visits to that place made him memorized the spot where it was buried.

He was sure he didn't do anything wrong to cause such happening, but the same couldn't be said of his father. Poison the river was obviously the reason of that odd happening. The forest haven't been so dark before. Only the scarce moonlight provided illumination.

'_Why can't that stupid cave rise already? I'll drag a human there myself and when he or she opens that door I'll run inside of it kill the human before he or she does something stupid and see what happened to that tree!_' he though clenching the key on his hand. He placed it back inside of the box and buried it back in hope that the cave would somehow rise.

Then he started to feel a very weird burning sensation in his body like when he had touched those unfamiliar fireflies inside of the tree's chamber. _'Crap! This is bad! Really bad!'_

End of chapter 18

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. I love to read your comments.


	19. The Madness of War part 4

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan and Christopher Scott for your reviews.

* * *

At King Pariah's castle, Fright Knight stormed through the halls in search for his king. A ghost couple, Box Ghost and Lunch Lady, had managed to bump into the general and told him everything about the human invasion.

Eric rushed to find his king when one of the Pariah's servants ended up finding him instead. "General Fright Knight! Thank goodness I found you." The ghost said.

The general didn't want to lose time with chit chat and tried to dismiss the servant quickly: "I'm sorry. I can't talk now. I have to speak with the king **now**!"

However the servant quickly said: "That's what I'm trying to do. The king summoned you. Someone tried to murder him!"

"WHAT?" Eric shouted. "Did the humans arrive here already?"

The ghost servant tilted his head and said: "Humans? What are you talking about, sir? It was a ghost who tried to kill his Majesty."

There was a brief silence in the room. Fright knight couldn't believe that one of his kin decided to betray them. He wondered if the ghost sold himself to the humans to help them destroy all ghosts.

"Where is King Pariah?" Fright Knight asked with urgency.

"He's in his private chambers…" the servant started to say. But before he could say anything else, he watched the general storm towards it.

It wasn't the first time the general visited the King's private chambers. Pariah Dark trusted Eric and invited him there a few times before to drink and talk mostly about how to crush humans recently. But the king had replaced him recently for Wolfgang, who seemed to be his new favorite. Fright Knight had heard the gossips about the King desiring to replace Fright Knight for the werewolf. However, the general trusted his king would never replace him.

When Fright Knight finally arrived in the room, he opened the door without caring to knock and saw King Pariah lying on his bed while a ghost doctor attended him. "Are you well, your highness?" Eric asked concerned.

"What do you think?" said the Ghost king while the doctor injected him an antidote for the poison in his ectoplasm stream.

"Your highness, who did such a thing to you?" asked Eric.

"It was Bertrand." Pariah Dark replied with spite in his voice.

Everyone in the room failed to see Spectra flinching at the mention of the shapeshifter.

Fright Knight was quite surprised to hear that. Not that he liked the shapeshifter. Which he didn't. The general considered Bertrand's ways of fighting to be 'honorless', but he never expected for him to betray their king like that.

"Do you know why he did such a thing, my liege?" asked Eric.

"No. But I'll soon find out who planned my murder with him. I've sent some guards to turn Bertrand's room upside down to find any clue." Snarled Pariah Dark.

After a few seconds of silence Fright Knight than remembered his original purpose there and quickly told it to his king: "My liege, I have some dire news. The humans are attacking us. They're destroying every village they find and the guards sent there are being killed as well. The humans are armed with anti-ghost weaponry. How shall we proceed?"

"WHAT? HUMANS ARE INVANDING MY KINGDOM?" Shouted Pariah Dark.

Everyone else in the room was equally surprised. Fright Knight then said: "Yes, my King. I know I should have said this sooner, but I was shocked to discover someone trying to kill you. The humans are gaining several battles as we speak. Shall we send our entire army to crush them?"

"Yes. Lead my army, Fright Knight. Show those puny insects who they are dealing with!" Said the Ghost King starting to think just like his general. He wondered if the humans had something to do with Bertrand's treason.

"I'll do it with honor, my liege." Fright Knight said before turning to leave the room.

However, before he could leave a few guards entered the room carrying packages and letters. Spectra's eyes went wide when she saw what the guards were carrying.

Fright knight was a little surprised and was about to ask them to clear the path to the door when one ghost guard said looking down. "We've found a few letters in Bertrand's room, your highness…". They had read the letters and they didn't want to meet their king's eyes much less be the ones to give him such news.

"So, what is it? Tell me already!" ordered King Pariah impatient.

"Please, don't be mad at us, my King…But those letters were sent to Bertrand from…the Queen Spectra. And they're love letters…" continued the same ghost soldier.

Spectra started to panic. She had ordered Bertrand to destroy the letters once he read them because she didn't want them to be discovered. But what she didn't know was that the shapeshifter really loved Spectra and didn't want to get rid of them, so he hid them.

The Ghost King grabbed one letter from one of the guards near of his bed and scanned it with his good eye. He recognized the letter as his wife's. He crushed the letter with his fists and an eerie red light covered his fist as the letter turned to ashes.

"**You**!" roared Pariah Dark looking at his wife, who was standing next to the bed, with pure hatred.

"I-I c-an e-explain" the queen said with a nervous smile giving a few steps back. She didn't know what to say but "I-it's all a ruse. I-I mean. Bertrand clearly faked those letters to cover the real culprit."

"So, you're saying he even faked your awful hand-writing?" roared pariah Dark. "Fright Knight, kill her **now**!" The sole reason why he ordered his general to do it, was because the Ghost King was too weak to do it himself. He never felt so betrayed in his whole life…

Fright Knight was still a bit confused about killing the Queen, but before he could ask the King if he really should be doing something like that all ghosts in the room started to feel dizzy and weak. "What the…" Fright Knight said falling on his knees doing his best to not fall unconscious.

* * *

At Amikeco Parko, everyone was aghast to hear that King William was attacking Amikeco Parko. Danny didn't know this person, but he didn't like him already. Sam rushed to a window and saw the entire city being set on fire.

She slowly gave a few steps back and turned to her parents. "Why is he doing such a thing? Can't he see he's killing a bunch of innocent people?"

"This must be some kind of mistake. Maybe we can talk this over." said King Thurston holding his wife.

"Go ahead kid. I'm sure the army is surely going to listen to you. Besides it's not like he's there. No king would risk himself placing himself in the middle of the battlefield." scoffed king Raymond. Then the old man turned to the soldier who was there and asked: "How are the army here fighting? Can't they defeat those imbeciles?"

"No, your highness…They outnumber us for at a rate of ten for each soldier of our side…" explained the soldier grasping his spear stronger.

Danny wondered how he could have a normal conversation with his grandfather now. He, however, couldn't think much because he felt his powers leave him for a brief moment, but it was enough for him to lose his invisibility.

Everyone else gasped when they saw a teenage boy appearing out of nowhere. Danny noticed that his cover was blown and decided to at least try talking. "Uh…Hi!"

"What is the meaning of this?" King Raymond said getting up of his throne and giving a few steps ahead. "Is this a ghost? How could this…thing pass through our defenses? Did William stroke so low that he decided to cooperate with ghosts? Never mind. I'll make you spill everything, abomination!" King Raymond continued to snarl.

Danny rose his hands in an attempt to make clear he had no ill intention. He then tried to walk nearer of his grandfather and attempted to begin a conversation: "Look, I know this isn't the best of times, but we really need to talk. You see, I…"

"I'm not going to discuss anything with a demon! You scum corrupted my daughter!"

"My dad corrupted no one! And, for the record, I'm your grandson!" Danny snapped. The boy immediately regretted yelling like that. It wasn't going to help him if he lost his cool.

"You're my what?" said king Raymond surprised while his wife placed her hands over her mouth, aghast.

"My mom was Madeline Irongrip. She was killed because of you! Why did you do it? Just because my dad is a ghost? How fair is that? Why did I have to grow up without a mother solely because you blindly hate ghosts?"

"So she managed to give birth to her spawn…" muttered King Raymond completely ignoring the boy's other comments.

But his grandfather's words were loud enough for the hybrid to hear. "Why are you doing all this? We never did anything to you. It was you, humans, who blindly murdered three ghosts scouts in a cruel way and there wasn't retaliation. And it was YOU who killed my mother for no reason!"

Danny was getting desperate. He didn't even know how to start talking with his grandfather. All the man did while the boy talked was give him a look of disgust as if he were looking to the ugliest thing in the world. All what the boy wished was to know the true reason why the old man in front of him ordered the death of his own daughter. Deep down, Danny wished that it were just a mistake, a misunderstanding. But his grandfather's next words proved the boy wrong…

"Kill the abomination now!" roared King Raymond.

"Dear, please. I don't think it's necessary." Queen Teresa tried to intervene, but it was futile.

One guard pointed the spear to the boy and rushed towards him.

"NO!" Sam screamed as the weapon approached the hybrid.

Danny watched with wide eyes as the man ran towards him with the deadly iron-made weapon. Danny closed his eyes and waited for the fatal blow that never came. He, instead heard some screams and when he slowly opened his eyes, he saw red blood on the floor making a small pool. But it wasn't his blood. Danny had turned intangible by instinct avoiding the attack. The spear had pierced his grandfather's stomach instead.

The guard panicked and quickly removed the spear from the old man and begging for forgiveness. King Raymond placed both hands over the hole made on his belly and gave a few steps back and collapsed on his throne breathing hard.

The Queen Teresa screamed in despair and jumped next to her husband. "I…didn't mean any of this to happen…I…only wanted to talk!" the boy tried to defend himself.

King Raymond then said: "Looks like you got your wish granted you little freak! But fear not, your precious daddy will be killed when my army finds him. I wished I could kill him myself, but when the news of my death spread, my army will kill everyone of your kin on the spot!"

Danny's eyes went wide: "WHY? We never did anything to you! I can't believe you…"

But then King Raymond cough a few times before he closed his eyes forever. Queen Teresa screamed for him over and over while Sam's parents held her behind them in order to "protect" her from the ghost boy.

Sam finally recognized the boy as the one who talked to her earlier that day. Sure the hair and eye colors were different but the overall appearance was the exact same, plus the fact of what he mentioned about him being the grandson of King Raymond.

The guard who accidentally killed king Raymond let go of the spear and got away running from the room. The other two guards who outside tried to ask him what had happened, but they got no answer from the fleeing guard, they, then, decided to come into the room only to find their king lying lifelessly on the floor while their queen sobbed over his body.

Then they spotted the unknown boy in the room and assumed he was the one who did such thing and rushed to get him. "WATCH OUT!" Sam screamed, making Danny snap of his fixed gaze off his grandfather's corpse.

The boy them pointed his hands to the soldiers and fired a couple of ice beams, one from each hand, to completely freeze the soldiers bodies. He had learned to do that by visiting his friend, Winterflower, who was the daughter of the village of Far Frozen, Frostbite.

The boy wanted to flee from there. Fly back to his home as quick as possible. He went to the window and he immediately didn't feel the nauseating smell of the bloody blossoms, but he felt other smell. Of something burning. He then gave a good look at the people running with their families while and army advanced with little resistance. The boy stood there for a while watching the scene trying to think about what to do.

Sam escaped from her parents grasp and rushed to the hybrid. "What are you going to do?"

Danny looked to her with a saddened expression: "I'm going to protect these people." Saying that he jumped from the window and in mid-air two white rings appeared on his waist and went on opposite directions, making his blue eyes turn green and his black hair turn white.

End of chapter 19

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. I love to read your comments.


	20. A Timeless Lesson

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott and Little Fox in the Stars for your reviews.

* * *

At the Ghost King's castle, everyone in the room felt extremely weak. They didn't know the reason for that. Spectra had mixed feelings about that situation. On one side she was also feeling like crap, but the other was that no one was in state to go after her.

However, then she remembered about her…special ability. She was a leech. If she felt weak, all that she had to do was take the strength from others and right now they all smelled delicious.

She used the strength she had left to walk next to the bed where her husband was lying on and immediately removed his Ring of Rage and placed on her own index finger of her right hand. Pariah Dark was already weak and couldn't fight against that. He only growled at her in pure spite.

Spectra smiled and placed her hand over his chest and could feel all his bad emotions and started to feed herself with them. The king yelled in pain while Spectra felt a little better as she absorbed his energy. She intended to suck the energy of everyone in the room so she could erase all the witnesses.

Everyone in the room tried to escape from there, after all their Queen's skills weren't a secret to no one. But at each moment they felt weaker, Eric included.

Fright Knight got back on his feet and held the hilt of his sword tightly. He wasn't going to let the Queen murder the King and everyone else in the room. The general lifted his right arm, which held the sword, and stabbed against the Queen Spectra from behind.

She yelled in pain and broke the link she had created with her husband. The sword didn't perforate any vital organ, but it still caused a lot of pain and she now was bleeding a lot.

However, Eric couldn't celebrate anything at that moment. Every ghost inside of the Dead Forest started to lose their consciousness.

* * *

At Amikeco Parko, Danny resolved to be as useful as he could for the people in that kingdom. He would never forgive himself if he let all those people die.

Sam watched from the window as Danny turned into his ghost self. She found those two rings to be like bright halos and when he flew towards the rescue of the people of Amikeco Parko, in her eyes, he resembled an angel.

Danny flew as fast as possible towards the invading army. The boy gritted his teeth as he charged his hands with a blue aura. It was something he learned in his visits to Frostbite's village.

The boy unleashed ice beams from his hands and used it to put down the fire caused by the invading soldiers.

When the soldiers from Malnova Pordo looked to the sky and immediately froze in fear. It was a ghost. It was a ghost boy, but a ghost nevertheless. Besides, Danny was quite far from them so they couldn't tell it was just a teenager.

King William, in his wrath against King Raymond decided that all the talk about ghosts were just gibberish And he ordered that all ghost related stuff were destroyed. The king of Malnova Pordo thought King Raymond used ghosts as an excuse to make 'weird attacks' to other kingdoms and use ghosts to make the guilt not fall upon himself.

The army wasn't trained to fight ghosts either, but they've heard stories about how ghosts could suck their souls and plague their dreams if they ever encountered one. All stories were fake, of course, but they caused fear in the most valiant soldier.

Danny then focused in his hands a huge ball of ectoplasm energy. He then fired it against in front of the soldiers, making a crater. The soldiers didn't know that Danny couldn't take them all at once. And that eventually the boy would grow tired and wouldn't be able to turn intangible against their spears or arrows. Their ignorance was Danny's bliss, when all those grown up adult man screamed liked little girls and started fleeing from Amikeco Parko.

Danny smiled when they saw the army fleeing. He also wanted to leave, but he wanted to at least talk to his grandmother. Well, that's if she's willing to listen to him after all that happened. But he didn't want to leave without at least talking to someone of his mother side of the family.

When Danny returned to the royal room, after being sure every last one of the King William's soldiers left Amikeco Parko, there were several soldiers now having ectorranium-made weapons pointing at him. The soldier who had killed the king ran screaming that a ghost had killed the king. He put the blame on the ghost, so he could at least buy time to flee from there. He didn't want to be executed because of an accident.

"You're going to die for that, ghost scum!" snarled one of the soldiers.

Sam, who was held back within the grasp of her parents, managed to forcefully get rid of their grasp again and ran in front of Danny and tried to reason with the soldiers: "Listen. He didn't do it!"

"Sammykins! You have to get away from him! He's dangerous!" pleaded her mother.

"No! He had just saved this entire kingdom and it was that soldier who killed King Raymond! Are you all blind!" the princess snapped at them.

Danny was quite surprised to see that someone there was standing up for him. But the soldiers didn't want to reason with her and much less with the ghost boy: "The ghost must be controlling her mind! Don't fear, princess, we're going to save you!"

However, before they could attack, a voice said loudly: "Time out!" and then everyone just froze in time.

A blue-skinned ghost wearing a purple cloak holding a staff, with a clock at one of its ends, with his right hand and two necklaces with that same gear-like medallion with CW printed on them with his other hand.

The ghost stood behind the two teens and placed one necklace on Sam and Danny's necks. The two teens then came back to their senses they found it very weird that everyone else weren't moving.

"What is going on?" Sam asked to no one in particular.

However the ghost behind them answered the question for her: "I froze the time for them. You can move because of my medallions."

The two teens suddenly jolted at discovering someone was behind them. Instinctively, Danny stood in front of Sam to protect her from the unknown being. Clockwork then explained the situation for them: "I mean no harm, children. I'm here merely to help you."

"Why do you think we can trust you?" Danny asked very suspicious of that ghost.

Clockwork knew he would face such questions and for some reason he had a very calm smile as he answered: "If I meant harm, I wouldn't have placed upon the two of you my medallions."

Danny and Sam had to agree with the ghost's logic. But they still didn't trust him. Danny gave a good look at the medallion and he recognized it from the time his teacher, Alphonse, took him to the Cave of Beginning. And now the ghost was claiming that this thing belonged to him.

"My name is Clockwork, master of time, and I already know you two, Daniel Plasmius and Samantha Mason. Allow me to take this conversation to a place where we can talk freely."

Clockwork then spun his staff and a blue vortex took the three of them to a room full of clocks and some round mirror-like objects. These objects were the monitors where Clockwork liked to watch what happened in Earth.

The Time Master then explained: "This is my home. It's located outside of the time. So I can have a clearer vision at the past, present and future. You could say I'm a guardian of both ghosts and humans."

The two teens were aghast because of the sudden change of location that they barely paid attention to what the older ghost was saying. However, Danny exclaimed after realizing something: "It was your voice! I mean. It was you who called me all those times!"

Clockwork nodded and complemented the boy's statement: "It was a spell I placed upon the forests inhabitants. It was a way I found to, at least try, to make the ghosts stay in the forest. My call is at a subconscious level. It doesn't obligate anyone to follow my instruction, but it's a warning to not leave the forest. It's up to the people to heed my words or not. But you, Daniel, are a special case. You are half human. That made you able of actually 'hear' what I whisper."

Sam didn't understand what they were talking about, but then Clockwork said with a sly grin: "You can discuss that with Daniel later. The two of you will have plenty of time to talk in the near future. But let me start explaining why I summoned you here. It's because the two of you can save the human kingdoms you are related to and the entire ghost population from being destroyed."

The princess had to interrupt the Time Master to object: "Hang on! You take us unwillingly to your home and now you're demanding stuff from us? You're a very powerful ghost, right? Can't you do anything to stop the humans from killing the ghosts on your own?"

Clockwork shook his head and answered: "When I acquired these powers, I placed upon myself several rules. These rules are to prevent myself from meddling unnecessarily in the world."

"What?" both teens asked in union.

The man suddenly became a young child for their surprise and continued: "Time goes backwards and forwards for me. Like a pendulum. Imagine for a moment if I decided to constantly help everyone out with powers like mine."

Then he made a pause for the two teenagers to think. He already knew what they were going to answer, but he wanted to give them the chance of getting to the right answer. Just because he knew what was going to happen, it didn't mean he had something to do with it. Besides, doing this, they couldn't claim he didn't gave give them the chance of getting to the right answer themselves.

Danny was the one who took what the ghost said most seriously. As soon as the boy thought he understood the situation he snapped at the other ghost: "Wait a minute! If you did intervene, like you should, many horrible things wouldn't have happened! All those people wouldn't have died at my grandfather's kingdom and also my mother wouldn't be…"

Clockwork sighed. He couldn't blame the child for thinking like that. But the Time Master had a very good reason to not meddle constantly in the worldly affairs. "Listen, both of you, I'm a guardian. I make sure big tragedies won't happen."

"Really? So that whole attack at my home and my grandfather's aren't considered big enough for you?" the boy scoffed.

Clockwork turned into an old man and then answered the boy: "You put a stop at the invasion at Amikeco Parko quite easily, didn't you, child?" Danny was taken back a bit that remark of the other ghost. Clockwork smiled and than continued: "As for the ghostly invasion against your home, Daniel, if it had happened at any other time, I wouldn't intervene. But in this case, I will."

Danny and Sam were confused by those words. "What do you mean by 'if it had happened at any other time'? What is happening now that makes things different?" Sam asked.

"First, I must explain what caused the kingdom of Malnova Pordo to attack Amikeco Parko. The Ghost King, fearing an imminent human invasion, decided to attack first. Because of that, he approved Wolfgang's idea to poison the water of a river to kill several humans. The kingdom of Malnova Pordo suffered several losses because of that. King William thought it was all King Raymond's fault for all those deaths and decided to retaliate."

Clockwork then made a pause because he knew Danny was going to ask him: "Wait. Wolfgang? Do you mean, professor Alphonse's father? Did he even know about this?"

Clockwork turned back to his adult self and answered the boy: "Alphonse knew nothing, at least not until some hours ago. He's even trying to get the Cave of the ground without any success, but I'll explain you why is that in a few moments, so bear with me for a moment." Taking a breath, the Time master continued: "What the Ghost King didn't know was that, just because the ghosts were immune to the poison thrown into the water, it didn't mean the trees also had the same immunity. To be more specific, that tree inside of the Cave of Beginning you visited several years ago, Daniel, is dying because it also feeds from the river's water. And you felt its effect when you felt your powers suddenly leaving you at your grandfather's throne room. To answer this before you ask, I would have summoned both of you here now even if you hadn't decide to visit King Raymond. What happened there was not my fault, but it also wasn't yours. You wanted answers, but all you got was senseless hatred…"

Sam could see how the other teen flinched at the mention of his grandfather. But then she asked something that bugged her about what that old ghost just told them: "What do you mean by, you would have taken me here?"

The Time Master answered her: "It's quite simple, child. I saw how curious you were about Daniel here. I also could see that you didn't have the weird prejudice. I thought I could show you the consequences when different kingdoms refuse to use reason before jumping to each other's necks. The two of you are the seeds that will stop this war for once and for all."

The two teenagers then looked at each other still a bit confused by what he meant by that. The Time Master just smiled and pointed to a mirror floating in the room and told to both of them: "Look there, for some visual help. I'll be giving the details while you watch the past."

With that said, the monitor showed a boy with brown hair and honey colored eyes walking into the forest at night. Clockwork then told Danny: "I was originally a human. A **long** time ago, I used to live in a small village amidst a dense green forest, where now there's the Ghost Kingdom. One time, when I was a teenager of your age, My father was a farmer and he gave me the task of deliver seeds to another farmer to whom he intended trade seeds with. I wanted to go through a shortcut to be done with the task as quickly as possible. I ended up finding a hungry wolf instead of a smooth walk through the forest. I ran as quickly as I could away from it. The thing was that I ended up getting lost amidst the forest and I was cut by some low branches and I failed to notice the glowing green lake in the middle of the forest which I ended up falling into. I found out, later, that it was a pool made of a substance that has the opposite effect of the ectorranium. Instead of nulling ghosts power, it enhanced ghost powers. And, in my case, it gave me ghost powers."

Clockwork gave a short pause in his lesson. He wish he could say all those things were livid in his memory, but he couldn't…He shook his head and then continued when he noticed Danny and Sam were looking at him confused: "It gave me powers beyond my imagination and also knowledge from the past, present and future. But it had a price. A huge one in fact. When I fell into the lake one seed slipped out of the bag and it reacted with my blood that came out of my wound and with the green lake. It caused a huge green shockwave to spread through the entire forest making the trees become like you are used to see them now, Daniel. It also turned all the humans into ghosts. But it wiped the memories of everyone. My memories included. But, as I told you, I can see the past. So I know everything. Ironically, because of that memory loss, I can only see all my memories of that time as if I was a mere observant of what happened."

Clockwork changed to his human child while he stopped talking for a while. He had lived for so long, but those memories still plagued his mind. But he had to continue his story due its importance: "When I managed to get out of the lake, I had a huge headache. I didn't even know myself how I managed to get out of there in such condition. My head seemed like it was going to explode because of all the knowledge of past present and future flowing into my head. It was then when I noticed there were two one-eyed creatures wearing white robes. They were two Observants and they were angry…"

Clockwork than made sure the monitor displayed what happened to the teens and let the scene speak for itself.

* * *

"_What is the meaning of that? We sensed our fountain of power was in peril!" an Observant demanded angrily while the other approached Clockwork _

_The Observant that approached Clockwork grabbed him by his shirt and lift him to raise him at his eye level. "Who are you? Do you have any idea what have you done, you brat?"_

_Clockwork only held his own head completely unsure of what to do. He was too confused and in too much pain to react to the situation. The other Observant pointed out: "Looks like there were humans living in this forest…I can't believe the humans came to leave in this place! We have chosen this place because it was uninhabited and because it was like the last person anyone who would try steal our powers would come to! Now the humans have our powers!"_

_The Observant holding Clockwork then asked: "How do you know that?"_

_The other one-eyed ghost then replied: "It's simple. We can observe anything from afar. If we had checked this forest before instead of assuming anyone wouldn't even dream of coming here we could have saved ourselves lots of trouble…"_

_The Observant still holding young Clockwork said: "This can be easily fixed." Then he pointed his free left hand to the lake and started to charge. _

_ "NO!" the other Observant shouted to stop his friend. "You mustn't do this! Anything you do to that lake will also harm us!"_

_The one-eyed ghost dropped Clockwork on the floor and crossed his arms. "Then what do you expect for us to do? Move it? To where?"_

_The other Observant shook his big head and said: "We can't move it either. Apparently this boy let a seed fall in the lake and it's growing at an alarming speed. It has already rooted! Moving it would be too dangerous…"_

"_Then how about this…" the other Observant said picking once again the dizzy Clockwork. "Listen here. Because of you we're in a lot of trouble. It's now up to you to fix this situation and protect this place! God help you if you dare disobey us!"_

_The boy was too confused to even answer such threat. But then he heard the other one-eyed being say: "You didn't have to say it like that! But, child. I think we'll need to talk to you about this situation. After all, all this…" the Observant gestured to the boy see how the forest suddenly 'died' "is you fault."

* * *

_

The monitor became blank as the Time Master filled the two teens with what happened next: "After that, the Observants took me in and taught me how to use my powers. So I could do the same for the other ghosts in the village. The sad thing was that my little trick wiped most of their memories. Not even my parents or my two sisters and brother remembered me…I had a huge responsibility and I still have it. The bigger problem was that I acquired an enormous amount of knowledge, but knowledge isn't the same as wisdom, which was something I acquired much later. I had some help from the Observants to modify the lake to become the 'Cave of Origin'. It gave a lot of trouble, but it paid off. By the way, another thing that surprised me was that some humans turned out to be quite different. Some became wolf like, while others became like yetis and then many others ghost species were born. By the way, it's quite wrong to label ourselves as 'ghost' and 'human' to make things simpler. You see, ghosts, by its definition, are souls of people who are still in this world. We aren't such thing. We're called that because of our powers. But, we, in fact, have Observant blood running in our veins. This is what makes us so powerful. We also have some small amount of human blood within us, this is the reason why we didn't become creatures with a huge eyeball in the place of our heads."

"So that's why nobody remembers our origins…" Danny mused out loud.

Sam found all that truly interesting. Nobody knew when and how the ghosts appeared, but she couldn't help but to feel annoyed by it: "I really appreciate the history lesson, but when are you going to tell us how to put an end to this madness?"

Clockwork smiled for Sam's surprise and then told her: "I would say 'children these days don't know how to be patient', but this is something that happened and will happen for countless generations. I'm almost there. Bear with me for a while. Remember I can send you back to the exact moment where I picked you."

After the two teens agreed with Clockwork, the Time Master Continued: "You see, some time after I became like a guardian of the other ghosts, I noticed something…disturbing was happening. People all around me, started worshiping me just because I was way more powerful than them and I provided them knowledge about themselves. It happened several times before with other civilizations. Some mystical creatures appear to help humans who start to misunderstand their intentions and because of that those creatures stop having contact with humans. We aren't gods. Learn one thing: there are beings much more powerful than us. Besides, don't you think people would grow too dependent on us if we keep holding their hands. That's why I decided to only intervene in situations that can't be resolved without my help. But before I left the Dead Forest, I modified the Cave of Origin so it was impossible for a ghost to go inside. Only humans could come inside now. Well, ghosts could come inside, after all I can't simply block the flow of energy of the tree. But I put that "open door" condition to ghosts to come inside. I didn't want any ghost accidentally doing something bad to the tree and causing an irreversible damage. I also placed raw ghostly energy that came straight from the tree to provide the necessary light for the tree and also some smaller amounts of its energy to supply light for the habitants of the Dead Forest. Yes, I'm talking about the fireflies. They harm humans because it's raw power, but the most concentrate form of it, which lies inside of the tree's chamber can harm even ghosts, after all they're still part human."

Danny and Sam were aghast by his explanation. However, Danny felt the need of asking: "But why didn't you just took the tree away from that place or locked it up in a way it couldn't get water from the river?"

Clockwork shook his head and turning to his child form he explained: "I can't move it because of what the Observant said in the memory I just showed you. It needs that place to survive. I couldn't just break its connection with the outside world because it's also a living being and it needs water to keep living. Also the entire power I placed upon the forest achieved a perfect balance. I couldn't change it even if I wanted to. Besides, the tree holds the lives of all ghosts, including my own and the Observants'. Besides because of the changes that happened in the lake, which is now under the tree, its color turned to a light blue over the centuries because of the human blood mixed with the ghost energy."

The teens wondered why Clockwork told them such things, but the Time Master had his purpose for telling the two of them so many things. He then continued: "I also made sure to supply the place with hints for the place where the tree is to be found by Alphonse. I looked into the future and I knew the tree would need to be saved…by you Daniel. You see, when my human blood got in contact with the lake, it changed its properties as I said before. The poison is turning the lake back to green because it's killing the human part of the lake and there's barely any of it left. I couldn't ask this to a human because the tree would kill him or her, because, well, they only have human blood. You have two kind of blood, the human one and the ghost one. If you give your human blood to the tree it'll not only give the tree the power necessary to cleanse the poison, but also make the lake go back to the normal. I hope the two of you won't hold a grudge against me. I can't butt into any matter that shows up because it would make the people grow dependent of me and lose the ability of solving problems on their own. Both humans and ghosts have a potential for great good. But some decide to use their potential for evil purposes while others decide to not use them. At all. Sloth is also a big problem and it'll be a even bigger problem…But I digress."

"So…Only I can heal the tree? Do I really must give up on my human half? Will this make me become like you or…change?" Danny asked not sure if he wanted to get rid of a good chunk of his DNA.

Clockwork knew exactly what he meant by 'change' and he explained: "Your personality won't change unless you want to, child. You wouldn't lose all your human half, you would became like the other ghosts. Like your father, for example. And you wouldn't become like me because I came in contact with an enormous power and it gave me an extraordinary lifespan. That's what allowed me to live for so long and keep living for many centuries to come." Clockwork stopped for a moment. His own words reminded him what the life he chose to live also came with a sense of loneliness. But he was glad to guide as much people as he could to the right path. Then he remembered one last thing: "To save the tree you need to give away your human blood, Daniel."

Both teens said in union: "WHAT?"

But the older ghost then gave Danny the following warning: "I'm sorry for placing such weight upon you, child. But you see. The poison in the river made the lake's color go back to green. The tree is trying to fight the poison, but's futile. It's also trying to turn the ghosts back into humans in order to release itself from the energy it gave to the ghosts, but it's futile. It can't get rid of the bond it created with the ghosts." Clockwork made a short pause for Danny to understand the implications of what he had just said. After that re resumed: "If you give away your human half, the ghosts will be restored and the forest will remain as it is."

"I…don't know…" Danny said unsure.

Sam then realized something: "Wait. Daniel, I…think you can trust this guy. I mean. If he meant any harm he could have done it by now and he also didn't do anything to hurt us. I know it's frustrating that he can't help us more, but I think I can understand his point of view. Besides, if he wanted to coerce you into giving your human half, he would have done it when we were frozen in time."

Danny thought about it for a while and had to agree with the logic of the princess. That strange ghost didn't do anything to coerce him into giving away his human half. He was trying to explain to him why it's vital for him to do so.

"Wait. Isn't there a way for us ghosts become humans if I give away my ghost half instead? Sure we would miss our powers but this way the invading soldiers wouldn't attack us anymore." Danny asked.

Sam could see that the other teen was under a huge pressure. It was unfair. She thought for a while, then she told him: "Daniel, I think you need to give up on your human half. I know this is weird, but didn't you hear that he said that only humans can enter normally in that tree chamber thingy? If everyone turn into humans and if they win, doesn't that mean that anyone could get to the tree and harm it?" She explained to him.

Danny was so focused about his initial anger towards Clockwork and his decision he hadn't notice any of that. "Danny smiled weakly at her and said: "Thanks."

Sam smiled back at him. She was now certain that she had discovered the truth when she saw Clockwork's grin.

Danny than gave a deep breath to calm himself down and asked clockwork: "Will it hurt…much?"

"So, you decided to give away your human half?" Clockwork asked to make the boy be sure of his decision.

Danny only nodded in reply.

Clockwork then told him turning back to his adult self: "Do not worry, child. The power is already there. All you have to do is…" Clockwork then spun his staff making himself and the two teen be caught in a light blue vortex. Then when they found themselves at the tree chamber, Clockwork finished his sentence: "place your hand on the tree while you're at your human form and imagine like you were throwing an ecto-beam with your hand, but don't actually do it, okay? The tree will do the rest."

Danny was surprised to see the tree with the leaves almost all red-colored. The last time he had seen them, they were green and lively. But know they seemed like they were about to fall.

"Wait. How come can we be here? The two of us are ghosts!" The boy said uncertain.

Clockwork gave the boy a quite simple answer: "I can be here anytime I desire because I made sure I was an exception in order to keep this place away from problems, if the situation needed me to. As for you, Daniel. You can be here, because the spell protecting this place from ghosts is also frozen in time. If the time weren't frozen, you would be sky rocketed away from this place, after all, we are underground at the moment. Now put your hand on the tree's trunk. It'll absorb your human blood, but it won't hurt you. With this the tree will gain energy enough to fight the poison and restore the things the way they were before all this madness. It'll even clear the poison off the river, so it won't hurt anyone else."

Daniel shivered at the thought. The boy looked at the tree for a moment. He was a bit hesitant, but he did as he was told. After a while his body started to glow and his energy passed to the tree.

The leaves instantly became green and it unleashed a huge green shockwave that knocked back both Danny and Sam. The shockwave was big enough to spread through the whole Dead Forest.

When Sam recovered her senses she got up and gave a look at Danny. She put her hands over her mouth in shock. The boy's skin was now blue and his eyes were bright red. But the rest of his body remained the same.

Danny noticed how weird the girl was staring at him and when he got up, he asked her: "What's wrong?"

"You look…different." She said as she approached to poke the boy, who found it to be quite weird.

"Don't worry. I'm still me." Then he turned to Clockwork and asked still unsure: "I'm still me, right?"

The Time Master then assured the boy: "Do not trouble yourself with these thoughts, Daniel. You're still you. Only that the majority of your blood is 'ghost' now."

"So what do we do now?" Sam asked.

"I can drop you both back at your families." Clockwork suggested.

But Sam had other plans in mind. "Wait. But what if that King William try attack my grandfather's kingdom once more? We need to stop him!"

"You're right…" Danny said. "Clockwork, can you send me to King William's castle?"

Not waiting for Clockwork's answer, Sam asked, not wanting to be shoved aside: "What do you mean, by just you. I'm going too! Besides you'll need help!"

Danny then turned to her and told her sternly: "Look, I appreciate your help. More than you can even imagine. But I can't just bring you to the lion's den! Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I'll find you when I'm done with that."

Sam didn't like that. Not one bit. She then asked the boy: "Do you promise me?"

Danny smiled and said: "Yes, I promise you."

She smiled and nodded. "You better fulfill your promise."

Danny smiled back and then they heard Clockwork saying: "Get ready, both of you. I'll be sending each one of you to your destinations."

Saying that, Clockwork spun his staff and sent Sam back to her parents and Danny straight to where King William is with a blue Vortex enveloping each teen.

Alone at the tree chamber Clockwork then pressed a button at his staff and said: "Time in." to make the time continue to flow. The Time Master still had one more person to talk to before he left to his home.

Clockwork then spun his wand and teleported himself to outside of the Cave of Beginning, right next to Alphonse, who almost jumped at the ghost appearing 'out of nowhere'. Clockwork then told Alphonse: "We need to talk."

End of Chapter 20

* * *

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Plaease review.


	21. War End

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott and Shaddow the Spirit for your reviews.

* * *

Alphonse started to run to King Pariah's castle with all his strength. He had a mix of curiosity, excitement and even some degree of fear. That happened because of the strange ghost who popped out of nowhere to talk to him.

The ghost told him his name was Clockwork and told Alphonse a much briefer version of the story he had told Danny and Sam about the Dead Forest. Clockwork merely told him that the tree is what keeps the ghosts alive and that there's no way of controlling it, just healing when it needs. He also explained to the lycanthrope how the poison thrown in the water almost killed the tree and everyone in the Dead Forest and what the fireflies were.

The Time Master didn't mention the lake bellow the tree, but he told the werewolf that the ghosts came from an accident involving the power of another species. He also told him how Danny had to give up of his human half to save every ghosts' life.

That last bit shocked Alphonse, but Clockwork wasn't going to give anything more away. He knew how Alphonse would react if he told him such things. The werewolf would have tried his hardest to get to the lake, even digging to get there.

Clockwork also made sure to make it clear to Alphonse that if the lycanthrope kept messing around the cave he could get seriously hurt and even endanger the whole dead forest.

The Time Master also showed a copy of his gear like medallion and even repeated several things he had wrote in the books Alphonse had read to prove Alphonse he was telling the truth. Clockwork even suggested that if Alphonse wanted to prove his worth to the world, like he always wanted, he should, first, stop with his high and might attitude. Second, he needed to make sure his father stopped being a leech on Alphonse.

Clockwork knew Alphonse could be dangerous. But he was a dangerous person who had some boundaries. The Time Master knew Alphonse would still try think of a way to learn more about the cave. But, at least, the lycanthrope would discover near nothing and would harm no one.

But the Time Master encouraged Alphonse to get enough will to face his father and show everyone that he's nothing but a faker and show everyone who's the real genius in the Werewolf Village.

But it was Clockwork's last words that rang in Alphonse's head the most. "Try to enjoy life a bit, will you. You have a wife that loves you. I know it was an arranged marriage. But try to know her a bit. You might enjoy her company if you do."

'_As if I could get along with anyone else. The only person I can count on is me.'_ The lycanthrope thought as he rushed to the castle also wondering where the strange ghost had gone to. All he had said was that he had other people to visit.

After running for a while, Alphonse finally reached the Ghost Castle. The lycanthrope saw some guards at the entrance and they were very confused, after all they felt like they were going to die some time ago.

Alphonse than appeared in front of the guards and asked them if they were alright. Not that he cared, but if he wanted to get inside of the castle he would have to butter them up a little.

The guards recognized who Alphonse was. He was often dragged by his father to some parties at the castle. Wolfgang did this in order to show off in front of his son and also to brag.

"I'm fine, I guess…But what are you doing here, Professor Alphonse?" one ghost guard asked.

Alphonse than said: "I need to see the King! I discovered the reason for our sudden weakness and he needs to hear that immediately before it's too late!"

Another guard cringed at that: "Wow. It's true when they say tragedies never come alone."

Alphonse raised an eyebrow and asked: "What do you mean?"

That same guard then answered: "Didn't you hear? Someone tried to kill the King and the humans are invading our lands."

Alphonse's eyes went wide with that. He then felt much more worried. There was no time for quarrel against humans and the King would certainly be short on patience after what happened to him.

The lycanthrope then asked again: "May I come in? It's urgent I talk to the King. Imagine if we lose our strength again while we're fighting against the humans?"

Alphonse's reasons for doing all this weren't that altruistic as the guards thought them to be. But what they didn't know couldn't harm them. This time.

The guards knew that they shouldn't let anyone come inside, especially at a time like that, but Alphonse was the son of the counselor Wolfgang and the professor also had a good reputation and what he said could be of extreme importance, so they ended up allowing Alphonse to enter the castle but they called another guard to guide him to King Pariah.

Alphonse was in such a hurry he didn't even mind being escorted by a guard. At least he was making some progress.

After walking some time, Alphonse and the ghost guard arrived to King Pariah's chamber and saw Fright knight, Wolfgang, some doctors, other guards and the Ghost King.

"Alphonse, what are you doing here?" Wolfgang asked surprised to see his son there.

As soon as they recovered their strength, the guards carried the wounded Queen Spectra to the prison. King Pariah was going to deal with her treachery later. But now he had to deal with the menace of humans in the Dead Forest

"I'm here merely to show how much you have endangered us all, father!" Alphonse snarled.

Wolfgang had gone to the castle right after he had talked with his son. He had been invited to live there and receive a noble title as well. Needless to say, he didn't like the tone of his son one bit.

"Please, excuse my son, your highness. He's been a troublesome child as far as I can remember." Wolfgang quickly said in order to at least protect himself from Alphonse's 'stupidity'.

Eric was quite confused to see Alphonse there as well. The general knew that the lycanthrope was his nephew's teacher and wondered why they even let he inside in a time like this.

"Let me take a wild guess here, then. You are intending to use poison against the humans once more, aren't you?" Alphonse asked gritting his teeth.

"If we don't use poison, you brat, how do you expect to get rid of the humans? They have anti-ghosts weapons!" Wolfgang protested trying to suppress the urge to ask how did Alphonse even knew about what he had just suggested to the Ghost King.

Alphonse stood quiet for a while but then he smirked as he remembered something the Time Master had told him. "let's gather all the fireflies and drop them on the humans! It's late at night and they pretty much had settled a camp by now. Also the night time is the perfect time to gather tons of fireflies."

"Are you mad?" Wolfgang said almost shouting. "What part of anti-ghost equipment don't you get it?"

Alphonse had to find it quite amusing to see his father loosing his composure in front of the King and also the General Fright Knight who only looked confused. King Pariah was also losing his patience with the younger lycanthrope, after all he trusted Wolfgang for his 'brilliant' ideas and had next to none contact with Alphonse.

Alphonse then answered: "It was thanks to your brilliant idea of throwing poison in the river that almost killed us! It was a…miracle that saved us."

"What?" everyone in the room suddenly said.

"That's preposterous! Arsenic doesn't affect us!" Wolfgang snarled.

"True. It doesn't affect us **directly**. But you knew it affected the **trees. **You say so yourself. But again, you were so keen to destroy the humans you didn't even consider the side effects of your own actions. We need the trees in order to survive. As you probably know, fireflies come out of the trees at night. They are pure ghostly energy. I bet you don't know that even water can corrode the most tall mountain. Don't tell me none of you wondered why we live in this weird forest for as long as this? We need the energy that comes out of the trees. We absorb it small amounts of it on our skin. You all know how pleasant can a firefly be for us and how harmful it's for the humans." Alphonse knew he was lying through his teeth about some parts, but at least they sounded convincing enough to make them quit using the poison plan.

"Are you forgetting **who** is the scientist here, boy?" Wolfgang snarled in hope that Alphonse would stop making him look like a fool.

However, the younger lycanthrope had enough of fearing his father. He decided to put an end on his act.

"I see…Are you talking about the research so well on ghosts' energies, huh? About how ghostly energy flows at a endless flow in our bodies?" Alphonse said with a grin.

"Exactly! Your majesty, you aren't well to deal with this brat's childish tantrums. Can you please throw him in jail for blocking with my plans?"

Pariah was about to do as he was suggested with Alphonse started to chuckle for everyone's surprise. "Wow. Just wow. You just gave a superficial reading in my research so you looked smart enough and then delivered it to the king, but, in fact, you knew nothing of what was written inside of what you stole from me, don't you? If you had gone through the trouble of at least memorizing what was in my research, you would have noticed how the ghost energy halts for a second every minute. It's this halt allows us to manipulate our energy. If the energy stops even for a second, it allows us to change its entire stream and manipulate it for a series of different usages. All of that, without harming our bodies."

Wolfgang gave a step back looked like he was hesitating. This were noticed by both the general and the king. "I-I wrote that many years ago. Of c-course I would forget about some parts of it!"

"Really?" Alphonse asked crossing his arms. "A huge 'genius' like you would forget about the most important research you ever presented to the king? But again, that's to be expected from the person who came up with the brilliant idea of poisoning us just because I refused in your pathetic attempts of getting a comfy life by leeching on our King's wealth!"

"Watch your tongue, you brat! I just forgot one little thing. I wrote that years ago. You pretty much read my work before coming here so it's fresh in your mind." Wolfgang snarled.

"Oh, really?" Alphonse said. Then he pointed to his father and demanded: "Alright then. If you're so smart, why didn't you consider the side effects of the poison? Why did you mysteriously not care for the fireflies, which I have to remember you come from the trees, to disappear? You almost killed us all. But I'll give you one chance. Explain to the king the side effects of the poison on the trees."

Everyone then stared at Wolfgang expecting an explanation, though some doctors there already knew the answer. Wolfgang then tried to lie his way out of the situation: "You are a moron, Alphonse. The poison didn't do any harm to us. Stop making stuff up."

However one ghost doctor had to intervene: "Excuse me, but I'm afraid he's right, Counselor Wolfgang. The trees do suffer with large amount of arsenic. Without the trees there are also no fireflies in the forest. The effects of the fireflies on both humans and ghosts are known for everyone. And I'm not making any of this up. If you had cared to made an actual research on the books you would know that. However, the effects of the lack of fireflies have yet still to be studied."

Wolfgang had enough of being contradicted. If he didn't do anything soon, everyone woulkd discover he was a hoax. He then clenched his fists and yelled at Fright Knight: "What are you waiting, you moron? Arrest him!"

Needless to say, Fright Knight didn't like to be yelled at. He hated even more when someone tried to use him like Wolfgang was. If the older werewolf was really telling the truth he wouldn't have lost his composure like that and Eric knew how smart Alphonse really was. The two of them talked a lot while the younger lycanthrope tutored Danny.

But ultimately, it was King pariah's decision. And there was one thing the King hated with all his heart: weakness. Wolfgang reached to the point where he couldn't even fend for himself and was even going over Pariah dark's authority and ordering his general to do something the King was yet to authorize or not.

The King may be wounded, but he knew when someone changed their mood like that, it meant nothing good. Sure his wife betrayed him, but he was always wary of her because he knew she was trying every now and then to grab some of his energy while they talked even during their sleep.

The problem was that the King never thought she would have the guts to both try murder him and **cheat** on him with a shape-shifting blob.

"If someone here is going to be arrested here it'll be you, Wolfgang! Never try to overrule my authority. Do not order my general ever again!" the Ghost King snarled.

"B-But, your highness. I'm the one who…" Wolfgang tried to explain himself.

"Almost killed us all?" Alphonse finished.

"How was I supposed to know those stupid trees would harm us? You didn't want to let me see your most recent research!" Wolfgang snapped at his son.

That was more than enough for everyone in the room to know who was the one telling the truth. The older werewolf placed both hands over his mouth at an attempt to fix his situation, but it was another give away of his lies.

"Fright Knight, arrest this imposter." The king yelled.

Fright Knight didn't voice how it felt good to put that arrogant werewolf in his place. He then grabbed him by force with one hand and with the help of the some of the present guards, they dragged a kicking and yelling werewolf out of the room.

Alphonse found the sight to be quite amusing because he had never seen his father act like that before.

But before he could go on, he heard King Pariah asking him: "So you were saying something about using fireflies to fight the humans, didn't you?"

* * *

At Danny's home Vlad had just recovered from the abrupt weakness he had felt. As soon as he could walk again, he rushed to Danny's room to check if his son was alright. But all he found in the room was a certain adult ghost wearing a purple cloak and holding a staff with a clock on the top of it.

Not seeing his son anywhere in the room, Vlad immediately snarled at the unknown ghost while concentrating red energy on both of his fists: "Where is my son? What did you do with him?"

The Time Master could see the past, present and future, but explaining to an angry parent that his child went through an unspeakable danger and even got changed in the process would not be an easy task.

"Daniel is alright, Count Plasmius. He's just somewhere else. Where he's more important to be." Clockwork said to the furious parent.

That explanation didn't satisfy Vlad in the slightest. "What are you talking about?"

"Perhaps it'll be better if I start from the beginning. My name is Clockwork. I am the first human who was turned into ghost inside of this forest." The Time Master begun his explanation, which made the Count raise an eyebrow in confusion. "I can see the timeline from above, so I know I can see its twists and turns. I know all about you, your wife and your son."

That made Vlad's energy glow even brighter. He thought that this unknown ghost was daring to threaten him. That didn't go unnoticed by Clockwork, who stopped time and moved to Vlad.

The Time Master then placed a medallion-necklace over Vlad's neck, allowing him to move even when time stopped.

Vlad blinked in confusion as he didn't see understand the weird feeling he had. But Clockwork immediately explained to him. "I stopped the time. And this necklace you wear is what makes you move while the time is still."

Vlad obviously found strange he was suddenly wearing that necklace. He didn't see when that ghost put that on him. But he still didn't believe the ghost could do such a thing. "Right. And I'm the King of all cheese."

"I'll prove you I'm telling the truth. If you think I'm lying after I show that to you, then you're free to shoot at me. Do we have a deal?" Clockwork suggested to Vlad.

"Alright, but I want a clear view of your back and if you try anything funny I'll painfully force you to tell me where my son is. Do not dare underestimate me" Vlad threatened him.

"As you wish. We don't have to go far. Here, at your home, it'll be enough." Clockwork said as he guided Vlad to the kitchen of his home. As they walked they saw some of the maids and some of other employees of the house staying perfectly still.

This of course made Vlad question what Clockwork did to them, but when they got to the kitchen they saw one maid, who tripped while carrying some plates . The plates were perfectly still in the middle of the air also with the maid inclined because of her accident.

This made Vlad drop his energy from hi arms and take a better look at her, aghast by the sight. "How is this possible?"

"I told you. I stopped the time." Clockwork answered calmly.

Vlad just turned angrily at the other ghost not liking such vague answers. Clockwork knew what he was going to say and in order to calm the parent he explained to him: "I'll tell you the whole story about the Dead Forest and me after I make these points clear to you. Your son, Daniel is a very unique child. Not just because he was a hybrid but because he was able to sacrifice part of himself to save the entire ghost population."

"What do you mean by sacrifice?" Vlad shouted not liking what he had just said.

"Listen, Daniel is now more ghost than human. He's pretty much like everyone else now. He resembles you even more now. You should be proud of your boy. I've seen many people much older than him, but without even half of his courage." Clockwork explained as he placed a hand over Vlad's shoulder.

"Where is he?" Vlad asked once more, but this time, without spite in his voice, but with worry.

"Your son is putting an end on the quarrel between humans and ghosts, I know this sounds like a huge task for a fourteen-years-old. But only he can do such a thing."

"What? But how?" Vlad asked

Clockwork changed to his elderly form and "The time is frozen, so I guess I can explain everything from the beginning. You see, there's this tree…"

* * *

At Malnova Pordo, King William was pacing back and forth in his throne room. He wanted to crush every single person at Amikeco Parko. Dash was there as well along with Alicia.

The queen of Malnova Pordo begged her husband to call off the attack to her home kingdom, but the man was stubborn and threatened her saying that if she didn't support him with his attack, it would mean she plotted with her father against him.

Alicia, obviously told him that her father may be hard minded, but he never plotted against him. Even Dash thought he father was overdoing it a bit. Sure he agreed that King Raymond was a nutjob, but it wasn't an excuse to treat his mother like that.

But none of them were expecting what came next. A blue vortex appeared in the middle of the room and when it disappeared a blue-skinned boy with white hair and red eyes was standing in the middle of the room.

The four guards inside of the room charged against him with their spears, but Danny managed to become intangible making the guards rush through him, doing no harm to the boy.

When Danny reappeared again he fires some ecto-beams towards their weapons shattering them for everyone's horror.

King William, in his anger towards the late King Raymond, had ordered the destruction of all ghost-related material. He thought that the whole 'ghost menace' was just the old man's craziness to put the blame on beings that did nothing to support what King Raymond had said about them.

"A-A…" King William started to say giving some steps back.

"Ghost?" Danny finished for him.

"W-ho are you? W-What do you want?" King William asked him.

"I'm Daniel Plasmius. I am the grandson of the king you just attacked." Danny started saying with an angry look. The boy had no intentions of harming that man, but he didn't need to know that.

"You're what? That's impossible!" King Raymond shouted as the guards were unsure of how to react now that the anti-ghosts weapons were gone.

"I was born before my mother passed away…" Danny begun "I went to face my grandfather for what he had done against her, but he was killed in an accident…"

"Wait. Is King Raymond dead? So you killed him for what he did to Madeline?" King Raymond asked now wondering if this being was there to aid him. After all he thought the boy held a serious grudge against the late King Raymond.

As they talked, Alicia voiced: "You're Maddie's son?" She didn't believe that she managed to give birth to the boy before she died.

But Dash was also flabbergast. '_That thing is my cousin?_' he thought with his mouth wide open.

Danny stared angrily at the man. He never intended for King Raymond to die. It wasn't even his fault to begin with. "No. I didn't kill him. As I said. It was an accident. One soldier was going to stab me and I became intangible, so the soldier ended up stabbing my grandfather instead."

King William, now more relaxed gave a small chuckle surprised by the fact that King Raymond was killed by one of his own soldiers.

However, Danny didn't find it funny. It pissed the boy off to see that someone would enjoy to know that his grandfather was dead. "I didn't come here to be friendly to you, King William. I'm here to make some things very clear to you."

King William raised an eyebrow and was going to ask what the boy was talking about, but he then continued: "I won't harm anyone else anymore. What happened in your kingdom was horrible. But it wasn't my grandfather's fault. You shouldn't have attacked him."

King William then started to think the boy was going to do something with him and yelled at the guards to do something about him. They decided to launch themselves against the boy once more but they all phased through him once more.

Frightened, King William said: "I'll give you anything. Just don't hurt me."

Danny then sighed and continued: "Listen to me! I'm not going to hurt you, if you make it clear you won't attack my grandfather's kingdom or anyone else for a matter of fact." After a short pause he then told him: "Look, I assure you the one responsible for what he did to your kingdom will be punished and no more tragedy will fall over your kingdom. You have my word on that."

"How do you even know who…" King William started, then his eyes went wide as he realized. "It was the ghosts' fault wasn't it? So that old man wasn't crazy…"

Danny didn't want to tell him it was a ghost's fault, because he feared of a future retaliation, but then he assured him: "Yes, yes, it was…But as I said. What he did was wrong and he'll have what he deserves for doing something like that to you."

"How can I even trust you?" king William demanded.

Danny then stated one obvious thing the man seemed to forget. "I see you have no anti-ghost equipment here. If I were as evil as you think I am, I could have done unspeakable things to you by now. But I won't. Because I'm not evil. This whole quarrel between our species begun with a misunderstanding. I would like if you just let this subject go and just try to continue with your life. It'll be the best for all of us."

But before the King could say anything else, the time then froze. Danny, who was still wearing Clockwork's medallion wasn't affected at all. A blue Vortex appeared nest to Danny and not only Clockwork was there, but also his father.

"Come, Daniel. We have one more stop before going back home."

End of Chapter 21

* * *

Thanks for reading. I hope you enoyed it. Please review.


	22. Epilogue

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own Danny Phantom.

3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs

4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott and Shaddow the Spirit for your reviews.

5)Special thanks to Truephan for being my awesome beta for this story!

* * *

At Amikeco Parko, Queen Teresa was still holding her husband's body. Her eyes were still red from crying. But she couldn't help but to hear the King and Queen Manson arguing with their daughter.

Suddenly, Sam and Danny disappeared right in the midst of the girl's argument with her parents! King and Queen Manson and Queen Teresa gasped in alarm. They had, of course, not expected that. They couldn't understand what was happening but they all now suddenly feared for Princess Samantha's life. Her mother began to cry, and King Thurston only grew angrier with his fear for his daughter. But they did not know that it was at that moment that Clockwork had brought the girl and Danny back to his home. The time Master could have returned the girl at the same moment when he had took her to his home, but her sudden appearance would be one extra proof she was telling the truth.

Though internally relieved at seeing his daughter back unharmed, King Thurston tried to reprimand his daughter: "Samantha! Thank goodness you've escaped! Then, don't you see what I mean, daughter? He's a ghost and look what he just did to you! He could have hurt you or…killed you. Don't you know that it's because of him King Raymond is dead? And where did you get this necklace? I hope that ghost boy didn't give you that. It might brainwash you, so it'll be better to get rid of it now!"

Sam held the medallion Clockwork, which was still around her neck. She remembered how it protected her when the time was stopped once more, when Clockwork stopped time to talk with Vlad, but she didn't know why the Time Master froze the Time once more, however she had to defend Danny from all those absurd accusations.

She held the medallion with her left hand and told them "Forgive me, Lord Father. I know this is weird, but I must insist. He's **not** evil. He even saved us from Malnova Pordo. Forgive me for my words, but King William did not care in the slightest for anyone in this place. If it weren't for Daniel of the Dead Forest we would all be dead by now."

Her parents were taken aback by her truthful statement. If it weren't for him, they would all be dead. King Mason tried to reason once more: "But our meeting with King Raymond was a secret. We didn't tell King William about it. So, it wasn't like King William was trying to kill us on purpose!"

Sam did her best to not lose her composure: "True. His intention may not be trying to kill us. But does it make any difference? You could see from the window. His army was killing tons of innocent people. It meant King William ordered his army to kill everyone. It doesn't matter if he intended to kill us or not. If it weren't for Daniel, we would be dead."

Her parents cringed not finding any argument to counter their daughter. They also had to admit the boy didn't exactly do anything wrong. He was only trying to talk to his grandfather. What happened in that room was just a horrible accident. However, they were unsure of how things were going to proceed from now on.

The boy's actions weren't harmful, but what about the other ghosts? King Raymond had sent an entire army to kill all the ghosts. If one ghost child could sneak into an anti-ghost kingdom imagine what a whole army would do?

The answer soon came to them when a blue vortex appeared in the middle of the room with Vlad, Clockwork and Danny. Vlad looked at the strange situation at the moment. He never thought he would place his feet in that castle ever again.

He also couldn't help, but to notice the limp body of a man, who he recognized from the painting Madeline had showed him several years ago as King Raymond. He knew that he shouldn't feel like this, but he felt some satisfaction from the outcome, but it soon vanished as he thought how hard it must have been to his son to be the indirect cause of it.

"Who are you?" King Thurston demanded getting scared. Now there were three ghosts there. Sam was the only human there to recognize Danny's new appearance.

"It's okay, Lord Father. That's Daniel of the Dead Forest. He's a bit different because he had to…do some things in order to save his home." Sam said before looking at the strange new ghost next to Clockwork and Danny. She had never met Danny's father before.

Every other human in the room didn't understand what she meant by that, so they were still puzzled by the boy's new look.

Sam also didn't want to sound impolite, so she asked Vlad: "Forgive me for my rudeness, sir, but who are you?"

Danny then realized he hadn't introduced them yet, so he said briefly: "Samantha, this is my father."

King and Queen Manson gasped, while Queen Irongrip only stared at the man with wide eyes. '_That's the ghost who married my daughter…_' she thought.

Vlad had nothing else to add to what his son said. It wasn't like he could just say "nice to meet you all", when he really wanted to blame them for the death of his wife. But Clockwork had told him about the girl and Danny's father had no reason to hold a grudge on her. He smiled weakly, but genuinely, and said: "Nice to meet you, Samantha."

The girl imagined that Danny had told him about her, but it was actually Clockwork who did so.

Before the conversation could go forward, several guards burst inside of the room carrying anti-ghost weaponry. The guard that had accidentally killed King Raymond had told them that a ghost did it and while everyone else was too preoccupied with the Malnova Pordo invasion and the sudden news of their King's death, the guard escaped to be never heard of again, after he lied to them.

"Stop right there, you demons! We aren't going to let you harm them!" said one guard pointing a crossbow with a glowing green arrow on it.

Vlad frowned not liking it. His hands started to glow red as he wondered why Clockwork, who supposedly knew about the future would take them to such a trap. However, his answer came in the form of the queen ordering the guards to drop their weapons.

The guards were confused by that as the same one holding the crossbow asked: "But, your majesty. They murdered the King!"

"It wasn't them who did it." Said the queen getting back on her feet and moving her eyes from her dead husband to the guards. "It was one of the guards who did it. He tried to stab the boy over there, but he ended up stabbing my husband instead."

"A-are you sure, my Queen? Are you not being threatened by them? We can protect you from them!" the guard said not believing that one of his own would have killed King Raymond.

"I…fear it's true." Said King Thurston for the surprise of everyone, but Clockwork. "He left running from here after he stabbed King Raymond. As for the boy, I also fear if it weren't for him King William would have killed us all."

These guards were inside of the castle when Danny saved the entire kingdom, so they didn't see any of it, but they heard some cheers from outside about the Manolva Pordo army retreating. They had just assumed that they had won. "But aren't they monsters?" said another guard.

That comment made Vlad growl only loud enough for himself to hear.

"If they were monsters we all would be dead long before you could have come. Now, don't hurt them unless they actually do something wrong." Queen Teresa warned.

"Yes, your highness" all guards said lowering their weapons, but not taking the ghosts away from their sight.

The Queen had sad eyes as she stared at the ghosts in the room. She then told Vlad: "I think we haven't been introduced properly. I'm Queen Teresa, Madeline's mother. What's your name?"

Vlad was taken aback from that. He wasn't expecting her to be like that towards them. He honestly thought she was just like her husband. "My name is Vladmir Plasmius and I guess you already met Daniel." Then Vlad pointed to the Time Master and said: "And this is Clockwork."

Clockwork merely smiled and said nothing to prevent further questions about why he was there: "I'm just the person who is going to take them back home after you finish talking."

Sam, Danny and even Vlad suspected that the ghost had to have some ulterior motive to actually stay there but they decided to ignore it for the moment.

"How…did you and Madeline meet?" the Queen asked Vlad.

Vlad was feeling quiet uncomfortable. Not because he was annoyed by the question, but because he was being treated kindly by someone he hated for years. "It happened many years ago. One day, she was kidnapped by a couple of bandits, who took her to the Dead Forest, and I saved her. We had an initial quarrel, but we overcame our differences and I started to come visit her here on a daily basis. We just fell in love some time after that. We then got married at my land because we didn't know how you two would react. I'm sorry for saying that, but our fears actually became truth after what happened to Maddie…I was barely able to save Daniel." After saying that Vlad's ire started to rise again. "I'm sorry for saying that, but what King Raymond did was unforgivable."

The guards there interpreted that as a hostile act from Vlad and thought he would attack the queen. They rose their weapons against them. When Teresa raised her hand and ordered them not to do anything.

The others were quite sad for hearing all that. Queen Teresa included. "I want you to know I partake in none of my husband's actions. It's really complicated to love someone and not be able to make him change his wrong perceptions. I…would like to believe he did what he did only because of the heat of the moment and not because he hated our daughter. I know it's still inexcusable. You have no idea how much I cried and begged him to at least make a tomb for her."

After a short and heavy silence she continued: "I never thought low of you. Only my husband did. I guess I should have realized she was already in love with someone when she smiled the way she did…" Queen Teresa said while looking at Vlad who couldn't help but to remember the happy times he shared with his late wife.

She then smiled at Danny and said: "I'm happy you were able to be born. My husband had told me Maddie was pregnant and I thought you had died. It's also good to see you are turning into a fine young man." She said all that because she saw how all the boy wanted to do was talk to them. What happened to King Raymond happened because of his own illogical hatred.

Danny couldn't help but to blush at the compliment.

Then Queen Teresa told them one last thing: "All of you are free to come here anytime you desire. Please, also tell the people back in your home there'll be no more aggression against the Dead Forest or any ghost for the matter." She then turned to one guard and told him: "Go send a messenger to the army and order them to retreat now along with the news that King Raymond is dead."

The guard said "Yes, your highness" and then left the room to fulfill the task.

"There are is nothing I can do or say that will erase my husband's crimes. But I hope we can have a clean beginning." the Queen said turning back to Danny and Vlad.

Danny was going to say 'yes', however his father answered for him: "I would be pleased. When all this craziness is over, you are more than welcome to meet my family, your majesty."

Queen Teresa smiled and replied: "You have my gratitude. I hope you have a safe trip back home." She was going to offer them some guards to help to ensure their safety, but she didn't because she knew how things were between humans and ghosts, so she thought they were safer on their own.

"That won't be necessary, Your highness. As I said I can take us back to the Dead Forest the same way we came here." Clockwork said.

Danny then told his grandmother not really sure: "Bye, uh…grandmother?"

She smiled back at him and said: "You can call me grandma if it's better for you. I want us to be a family from now on, Daniel."

Danny's smiled and then turned to Sam and said: "Bye Samantha. I hope we can see each other again."

She blushed and she also told him: "I also hope to see you soon."

'_Things are the way they should be…But I have one last stop to make to make sure nothing else bad happens._' Clockwork thought before using a blue vortex to teleport them back to the Dead Forest.

* * *

Some hours later, at the Dead Forest, Alphonse was finally alone in a room that belonged to his father before he was thrown into jail. _'How could someone not recognize he was a charlatan? There's not even ONE BOOK here!_' the werewolf thought as he looked at the room to know what he could use or not.

Suddenly there was a blue vortex in the room and he saw Clockwork there after the light died down.

"You again? What do you want now? Do you expect me to thank you for your advice? Okay, thanks. Now leave. I'm busy." The lycanthrope said.

Clockwork was not upset by the reception, so he decided to go straight to the point: "A simple 'Hi, Clockwork' wouldn't have hurt, wouldn't it?" the Time Master begun just to grab the attention of the werewolf. He then continued: "Look, Alphonse. I need you to do one last thing before I can leave you alone for the rest of your life. I need you to convince King Pariah to leave humans alone."

"WHAT? How do you expect me to convince them to not attack humans anymore?" Alphonse asked crossing his arms not liking how Clockwork seemed to be bossing him around. He was done with people messing with his life.

The Time Master turned to a child-like form and answered: "It's rather simple. Tell them the truth. That a ghost is now in charge of a human kingdom and even managed to convince the nearby ones to leave the Dead Forest alone and is also interested in being friends with Pariah Dark. You can even arrange a meeting with Pariah and Daniel in a few years after his coronation ceremony or maybe sooner. You decide it."

"Wait. What? Daniel? That ghost hybrid?" Alphonse said flabbergasted.

Clockwork nodded and said: "Yes. Him. Daniel's action finally created peace among humans and in order for that peace to extend to the ghosts, you need to convince King Pariah Dark to stop his vengeance. When the ghostly army reaches the human one, they'll overhear that the human king who ordered the attack is dead. The humans will be able to flee because of their Bloody Blossoms gas bombs, which will prevent the ghosts from following them. All you have to do is tell him something convincing. You know you can do it."

Alphonse then smirked in defiance and said: "You expect me to lie to him? Do you know what he'll do to me if I lie like my father did?"

The Time Master smiled calmly and replied: "You don't have to lie. I know you have your special way to tell the truth in a way he'll believe it. Just one more thing, Daniel's form changed a bit because he had to give up his human half to save all ghosts, so try not be too startled by it."

With that Clockwork spun his staff and left the room leaving a very confused werewolf alone. 'What's that supposed to mean?' Alphonse thought as he rubbed the back of his head.

No one came talk to him at that night. This gave the lycanthrope, who was sitting on a chair with nothing but a firefly inside of a glass tube to illuminate the room, plenty of opportunity for thinking about what the Time Master had told him.

'_How the hell am I going to convince that one-track minded king to not fight back against the humans…Now the King expelled the humans from our home, he'll want to conquer the human realm himself and…'_ Alphonse eyes then opened and he grinned. He had an idea. An awful idea. He got a wonderful, awful idea.

'_If I'm luck, the King Pariah will want to add the human kingd__o__m to his. But what if it already were? I need to speak with Daniel quickly, but I don't think he's home yet. Crap, I have to wait until tomorrow…_' he thought as he got up towards a door that led to a fancy bedroom.

Alphonse could almost not believe that his father had been living in luxury at his expenses for so long. He tried to rest, but he was too agitated to sleep. He tried to just think in nothing, but then he started to think about his wife, Jadiwiga.

It wasn't like he hated her. He felt next to nothing towards her, or any other being for a matter of fact. But she was always sweet and kind to him. '_I guess, if I could feel love, it would be towards her… What the hell am I thinking. Ugh. This is what I get to listen to Clockwork_.'

Alphonse then opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. His mother had died from birth issues, so he was basically raised by his father and a bunch of nannies. At first he thought that the nannies liked him, but then he discovered that they were only taking care of him and being nice because it was their job, nothing else. He tried to please his father in many ways when he was just a young cub.

But it didn't take long for Alphonse to discover his father only wanted to use him. He had no idea how to even care about other living being. Let alone love. '_Maybe I should give it a try. I'll consider that another experiment…_' He pondered before finally dozing off.

On the next morning, Alphonse woke up and decided to go straight to Danny's house to see if he was home already. But as he walked, he saw Fright Knight in the halls.

The lycanthrope then used this opportunity to ask him: "Good morning, general. May I ask you something? It's quite urgent."

Eric was in a bit of hurry, but he decided to grant the lycanthrope's whish: "yes, you may, but make it quick, I'm about to leave."

"Thank you. Do you know when exactly does King Pariah intends to attack the human kingdom? It's because I'm worried about the…ghosts who were hurt you know. Don't you think all the ghosts should be evacuated to the inner parts of the forest before anything else?"

The general found the sudden question quite odd, but then he dismissed the thought once he remembered what had happened last night. That lycanthrope pretty much saved them from being destroyed by his father ideas. He then answered: "As you said yourself, we are already organizing a mass evacuation of the villages near the exist of the forest to the center of the Dead Forest. We intend to do it in a couple of days. When we are done, we'll attack while some me soldiers stay just to make sure there's no human nearby and give the refugees proper shelter."

"I see, thank you for your time, general." Alphonse said before leaving towards the Plasmius Manor. Eric just ignored what the lycanthrope desired with those questions and moved on to fulfill his orders.

Meanwhile, at Plasmius abode, Danny and Vlad were already awake. It wasn't like they had slept at all that night. So much happened that they were still thinking about it.

Danny was still trying to get used to his new appearance because he had to explain what had happened to his grandparents and also to all employees at the abode. They were shocked to say the least.

James and Christine, Vlad's parents, were furious with the boy. They scolded him for hours telling him how suicidal his actions were. Vlad also scolded his son. It wasn't because they had a positive conclusion in this story that he was going to let his son slide so easily.

While Danny was being scolded by his father and grandparents, one maid appeared and told them: "I'm sorry for disturbing, but Professor Alphonse would like to talk with Count Vlad and young Master Daniel in private. He said it was urgent. He went to the library and he's waiting for you there."

Vlad sighed wondering what the lycanthrope wanted with them at such hour. "We'll continue this talk later, Danny." Then he turned to his parents and said: "We'll be right back."

Danny shrugged to really wanting to know how he was going to be punished, but apart from the tragedy involving his grandfather, Raymond, he didn't regret going there. He just wished things were a bit different.

When they got to the library, Alphonse was leaning against a wall and greeted them once they closed the door behind them: "Hello, Daniel, Count Vladmir." Alphonse said looking at the boy's new appearance. '_That guy wasn't kidding when he said the boy was different. Luckily his scent is still the same._' He added in his mind.

"You don't need to be so formal, Alphonse, but what do you desire?" Vlad asked when he realized that Alphonse hadn't met his son's new appearance. He didn't even know how to even begin to explain. But then he noticed that Alphonse had recognized his son. "Wait, you know this is my son? I mean…" Vlad said shaking his head in confusion.

Alphonse tried to give a sympathetic smile and said: "Don't worry. That ghost named Clockwork explained me everything that happened to you. This is the reason why I needed to talk with…"

"You've met Clockwork?" Daniel interrupted him aghast. He didn't expect the Time Master to contact his teacher. Now he wondered to what purposes Clockwork had with his teacher.

"I'm afraid I have. He told me briefly that you put a stop on the human side from continuing this war and he gave me the task of stopping the ghost side from slaughtering the humans back. To put a halt on this nonsense I came to the conclusion that we must tell King Pariah about your origins, boy" Alphonse replied not minding that much that the boy stopped him.

Vlad had to step into the conversation because he didn't like it in the slightest. "Wait a minute, Professor Alphonse. You had promised us years ago to never reveal Danny's secret! Are you going to betray us? The King will do unimaginable things with my son if he **suspects** that he's a traitor."

The werewolf raised his hands as soon as he saw Vlad's red energy around his clenched fists: "I'm not saying for us to just talk to the King out of the blue. I have a plan that'll prevent any further war plan from the Ghost King. Are you willing to listen to me, or do you intend to zap me in front of your son? You don't have to worry about a thing. If you don't like my suggestion, I'll forget this whole idea."

Vlad then turned to see his son, who looked at his father quite scared not only because of what his father said about the ghost king, but also his dad was about to hurt his teacher.

Vlad sighed and asked: "What do you have in mind?"

Alphonse sighed trying to suppress the anger from being threatened like that. He then explained: "The King is going to conquer the human kingdom that attacked our home. He wants to crush and turn it in part of his territory. But what if the human kingdom was already his?" he finished saying looking at Danny.

"But, how? Amikeco Parko isn't King Pariah's." The teen said confused.

Alphonse then smiled and said: "That's when I tell about you, Daniel. Sure, we won't tell him the whole story and we'll have to lie a bit in order to make this work. That Clockwork person told me what happened while you were there, boy. But we aren't going to tell the Ghost king this version. We'll tell him that you killed the human in charge of that Kingdom and…"

"WHAT?" Both Vlad and Danny yelled at the same time.

"This is outrageous! I'm not going to allow my son to be labeled as a murderer!" Vlad snarled at the lycanthrope.

Alphonse then replied trying to keep his patience. '_Why don't they shut up and listen before snapping at me?_' he thought before saying: "No one in the human Kingdom will be told this lie, just King Pariah will know of it. You all are familiar with the Ghost King system of leadership in the several parts of the Dead Forest. Each area has a leader. For example, The Far Frozen area has Frostbite, the Lycanthrope village has Nicolas, Wulf's father. My plan is to convince King Pariah that you, Daniel, 'killed the human king in order to avenge for your dead mother and that you want to swear loyalty to the Ghost King. While the humans are clueless about this whole deal, they'll actually think you are their king. I'll even do my best to convince King Pariah to keep this façade, after all if the humans think they aren't under the rule of the Ghost King, they won't rebel against Pariah Dark. I think our King will agree with this under the argument to prevent the loss of our fellow ghosts and still expand the territory out of the Dead Forest."

Alphonse made a short pause to let the two digest his plan he then continued: "I know this plan sounds bad, but it's the only way to prevent the King to retaliate. He intends to send his army in two days led by none other than Fright Knight. If you think you can prevent more blood bath before that, be my guest. But you must have had a great trouble in convincing the humans there to trust you, didn't you Daniel? What do you think the humans will think once the ghost army knocks at their door?"

Danny and Vlad looked at each other worriedly. They didn't like the idea of lying about Danny being a murderer. In fact, Danny had to protest: "We still have a couple of days, right? Can't we think about something else? This can't be our only option."

Alphonse had the urgency to press the boy a bit: "You mean the choice to save humans, right? Because you have plenty of different choices, but I've cogitated a lot, this is the only way to stop King Pariah from doing any harm to you or the humans. If we are convincing enough, King Pariah will leave Amikeco Parko to your care and everybody will be able to live in peace. I know pretending to be a murderer doesn't sound good, Daniel, but you have to think about the consequences of doing something else. Do you think King Pariah Dark will simply have your word for granted that the humans won't hurt the ghosts anymore? I don't know if they had told you, boy, but your grandfather army killed several innocent ghosts. The people are hungry for revenge. You can use the fact that your grandfather is dead in your advantage. But, again, this is your choice. I would only make myself of a fool if I tried to put this plan in action without you to give me support and evidence."

Vlad's eyebrow rose and asked: "Evidence? What do you mean?"

Alphonse tried to deliver this information the best as he could: "King Pariah will want to see King Raymond's body. I think you must ask your remaining family in Amikeco Parko to help you with that. I suggest you also make an offer showing your good will. For example, remove all the human's blood blossoms from the kingdom. You can tell them to keep their weapons hidden in case it's really needed and more importantly for them to feel like they can counter-attack anytime. This way, King Pariah will be convinced to leave that place under your care, boy. It'll also allow the humans to feel safe knowing that the ghosts won't attack anymore."

The silence in the room after Alphonse stopped talking was awful for everyone, including himself. Vlad was the one to finally break the silence: "If we do what you suggested, Alphonse, we would still need to talk to Queen Teresa! I don't even want to know how she's going to respond when we ask her to not bury her husband just yet. Besides how are you going to enter Amikeco Parko with all the blood blossoms there?"

Danny had to interfere: "But, dad, when King William attacked my grandmother's kingdom they set almost all of those flowers in fire."

Alphonse found it amusing to hear that the humans were fighting each other like that. He then spoke: "I know this won't be easy, but we need to act fast. So are you two going to follow my plan? You are more than welcome to make a better plan if you so desire."

Danny and Vlad looked at each other nervously, but they ended up accepting Alphonse's plan hoping it would work.

* * *

A few months later, Queen Teresa still found unbelievable how the war ended. The Queen was more than grateful for all her son-in-law, grandson and the werewolf's help in the matter.

Sure she found it bizarre when they had come to her with their plan to prevent King Pariah to retaliate. Sure she had to be harsh with her population to not even dare look at the Ghost King at the wrong way.

Pariah Dark was hardly satisfied seeing the corpse of King Raymond. It hurt Teresa to lie about Danny being the one to kill her husband. But she had to trust her ghost relatives. She didn't want anymore conflict with the ghosts.

She even told King Pariah that her husband's actions were his only and that she never agreed with them. She also told him that Danny's coronation was going to be scheduled soon to make the "illusion" to her people that they were still not related with the ghosts. Queen Teresa knew that was just a ruse to fool the Ghost King.

King Pariah had also stated several terms for the humans if they wanted to keep living. Such as the destruction of all anti-ghost material and never step a foot inside of the Dead Forest again. He also told her that there would be inspections every now and then.

That's where Sam's parents entered in action. In fact, no anti-ghost weaponry was destroyed. Just moved to her kingdom in case they're needed. Pariah Dark knew nothing about the kingdom of Batalo Babordo, so their plan was safe.

As for the population of the Dead Forest, many desired revenge against for their lost loved ones, but they had to accept that at least the person behind the massacre was dead.

And as for the population of Amikeco Parko, they were quite scared of how things would be by having a ghost king. They've been fed with tons of lies and it would be hard to erase all that, but Danny accepted the challenge.

Danny and Sam were at Danny's new room at the Castle of Amikeco Parko since Sam couldn't go the Dead Forest due Pariah Dark's decree. She had also managed to convince her parents to let her visit Daniel since it would be vital for their kingdom to be friends with the ghosts.

She tricked her parents because she really wanted to know Danny better and if the relationship between their kingdoms improved, it would be just a bonus effect.

The two started to chat a lot and even were introduced to each other's friends. It didn't take long for the two become good friends as well.

"Doesn't being chosen to rule over an entire nation feels like a huge weight for everyone? I mean I want to do my best to keep this peace going and maybe I can persuade King Pariah to remove the decree forbidding humans. But it's harder than I first imagined…" Danny confessed to Sam.

The two teens were sitting on chairs next to each other in Danny's room. In fact they had sneak there while everyone else thought they were strolling. Danny wanted to get to talk to Sam without several eyes staring daggers at them.

"It's hard, yes. But imagine being in my place. I can't inherit my kingdom unless I marry someone." Sam replied.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to…" Danny quickly apologized.

However, Sam wasn't mad. She just smiled: "I know you didn't mean harm. I just wanted to lighten you up a little. But really, the hardest part is already over. That plan of your teacher worked like magic."

"Professor Alphonse's is really smart. He's even going to be a father soon, but the weirdest part was that when I overheard him talking to my dad. He asked my dad how to be a dad. Can you believe that?"

Sam chuckled and replied: "Maybe he's just nervous."

Danny smiled and said: "Maybe you're right." But then the boy blushed when he remembered what she had just said about having to marry someone. The two knew each for a short period of time, but more Danny knew about her more he liked her. '_I hope Johnny and Ember don't take this in the wrong way…_' he thought to himself.

Sam noticed his sudden silence and asked: "What are you thinking about?"

Danny snapped out of his thoughts and quickly said trying to cover himself: "N-nothing."

The girl raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on that. "Okay…But it's like I said Danny. The worst part is over. I'm sure you'll be a strong and beloved person."

Danny smiled and said: "Thank you, Sam." He then looked at the window and saw a clear blue sky now with hopes renewed to fight for a better future for both humans and ghosts.

End of Story

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That's it, folks. I hope you all enjoyed this story. Thanks for reading and reviewing


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